Queen Mary II

1 portrait matching these criteria:

- subject matching 'Jewellery - Earrings'

Queen Mary II, by Jan Verkolje, circa 1688 -NPG 606 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue

Queen Mary II

by Jan Verkolje
circa 1688
15 5/8 in. x 12 3/4 in. (397 mm x 324 mm)
NPG 606

This portraitback to top

Like NPG 197, NPG 606 derives from the Wissing pattern of 1685, showing Mary with a young, full face, not otherwise exactly matched in her portraiture. It agrees with an engraving, of the same size, by Jan Verkolje. [1] In Verkolje’s son’s sale, Amsterdam, 24 October 1763, lot 20 comprised portraits of William III and his wife by J. Verkolje, ‘well known from mezzotints made by the same master’ (39.5 x 32.8 cm). [2]
A version of similar size, showing minor differences including honeysuckle on the right, is in a French private collection (previously given by Queen Mary to the Duke of Windsor, later Edward VIII). [3]

Footnotesback to top

1) F. W. H. Hollstein, Dutch & Flemish Etchings Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700, 32, illus. The companion plate of a William III, a pattern quite independent from Wissing, is lettered Verkolje pinxit et fecit (F. W. H. Hollstein, Dutch & Flemish Etchings Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700, 42). Portraits of William and Mary in the Frans Hals museum, Haarlem (283, 284), attributed to Verkolje are perhaps not by him.
2) See P. E. R. Hall, ‘The Wissing Portraits of Mary II’, unpub. typescript, 1975, with some photographs, f.84.
3) The head is slightly elongated; examined by Catharine MacLeod in 2005.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 225 as copy after Wissing.

Wieseman 2002
M. E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher, 2002, C186 (as formerly attributed to Caspar Netscher; a misunderstood reference alleging the picture had been sold from the NPG in 1983).

Provenanceback to top

C. H. Waters, from whom purchased 1880 (as by Netscher).

Exhibitionsback to top

Parliament and the Glorious Revolution, Banqueting House, Whitehall, 1988, no.13; Kings in Conflict, Belfast, 1990, no.64; The Stuart Legacy, Birmingham AL/Memphis TN, 1991, no.190; Henry Purcell, British Library, 1995.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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