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1 of 253523 objects
Mary II (1662-94) when Princess of Orange c. 1685
Oil on canvas | 125.9 x 101.9 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 404449
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Wissing was a Dutch artist who came to London in 1676, studied with Sir Peter Lely and effectively took over the business for the seven years between Lely’s death in 1680 and his own in 1687 (aged only thirty one). All the works by Wissing in the Royal Collection date from this period.
This is one of a pair of portraits (OM 321 and 323, 405644 and 404449) of the Prince and Princess of Orange commissioned by her father, James II, who sent Wissing to Holland in 1685 to execute them. Constantyn Huyghens commented on the newly arrived painter that he was not yet up to his master’s (that is Lely’s) standard. The Prince of Orange is shown dressed in armour, lace cravat and riband of the Garter, a medallion dangling from the knot at his waist; a baton in his right hand. In three years he was to depose his father-in-law and commissioner of this portrait to become William III.
The future Mary II (1662-94) is seated in a landscape, holding her veil in her right hand; she is wearing a crimson ermine mantle and a blue silk dress with an elaborate jewelled brooch at the breast.
Signed 'W: Wissing / fecit'Provenance
One of a pair (404445 & 404449), first recorded in James II's possession a wardrobe at Whitehall in 1688 (nos 1194-5); in store at Kensington Palace in 1710 (nos 125-6); both in the Queen's Private Bedchamber at Kensington Palace in 1736; both in the King's Closet at Windsor Castle in 1816, where they appear in Pyne's illustrated Royal Residences of 1819 (922104).
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
125.9 x 101.9 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
143.5 x 119.3 x 5.2 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)