William III (1650-1702) when Prince of Orange Signed and dated 1664
Oil on canvas | 127.1 x 105.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 405640
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The fourteen year old Prince William of Orange is depicted in full armour, wearing the chain of the Garter and holding a baton in his hand and standing beside a plinth upon rests his helmet and gauntlet. In 1664 Hanneman was paid 500 gulden for two identical portraits (see RCIN 404919) of the Prince of Orange, which were to be sent to England. They were reported to have been considered by the recipients a great success and in return Queen Henrietta Maria resolved to persuade Charles II to sit for a portrait which could be sent in return.
Hanneman was born and probably trained in The Hague, but was in England by 1626 until c.1637 where he was deeply influenced by Van Dyck. After his return to The Hague his associations with the English court made him understandably popular with the House of Orange and later with the exiled Stuarts and their followers.Provenance
Commissioned for the English court, possibly by Amalia van Solms, the sitter's grandmother; it is difficult to separate the subsequent histories of the two versions of this composition in the collection (RCIN 405640 & 404919); a best guess is that this one was in the King’s Bedchamber at Whitehall in 1666 (no 244); and again in 1688 (no 96); it then appears in the Prince’s Drawing Room at Windsor Castle in 1710, it remained in this position though the room is variously named – ‘Prince’s Antichamber’ (1720), ‘Bridget Holmes Room’ (1750) and ‘Little Dressing Room’ (1776) – and the sitter starts to be called Charles II; this version is correctly identified, measured and attributed in the Gallery at St James’s Palace in 1819 (no 1022) and again in 1863 (no 8)
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
127.1 x 105.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
148.1 x 124.2 x 6.0 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Alternative title(s)
William III (1650-1702)