Van Mour was a native of Valenciennes, a Flemish town that at the time of his birth belonged to the Spanish Netherlands, but since 1678 to France.

He studied art in the studio of Jacques-Albert Gérin, and his work attracted the attention of an aristocrat and statesman of the time, Marquis Charles de Ferriol.

A series of one hundred engravings were created after Van Mour's portraits, which was published by Le Hay in 1714, titled as Recueil de cent estampes représentant différentes nations du Levant.

In 1727 the Dutch ambassador Cornelis Calkoen asked Van Mour to record his audience with Sultan Ahmed III on canvas.

In his will of 1762, the bachelor Calkoen directed his nephew and heir Nicolaas to keep the collection together, and it was his express wish that they were to hang in the room of Amsterdam City Hall reserved for directors of Eastern trade.