King William III

This portraitback to top

The original, dated 1667, was owned by the Emperor of Germany in 1918 [1] and a larger signed version (180 x 127 cm) is at Hampton Court. [2] Besides NPG 6269, another small copy is in the Neues Palais, Potsdam. Staring hinted at the possibility that the Roman costume was that worn by William when he played the part of Mercury in the Ballet de la Paix, staged at the Binnenhof in February 1668 [3] to celebrate the Treaty of Breda, but the prime version is said to be dated 1667.

Footnotesback to top

1) A. Staring, ‘De Portretten van den Koning-Stadhouder’, Nederlandsch. Kunsthistorisch. Jaarboek, III, 1951, pl.14.
2) C. White, Dutch Pictures in the Royal Collection, 1983, no.12, pl.11.
3) A. Staring, ‘De Portretten van den Koning-Stadhouder’, Nederlandsch. Kunsthistorisch. Jaarboek, III, 1951, pp 172-73; see N. A. Robb, William of Orange 1650-1673, 1962, pp 163-64.

Referenceback to top

Simon & Saywell (eds.) 2004
Complete Illustrated Catalogue, NPG, ed. J. Simon & D. Saywell, 2004, p 663.

Provenanceback to top

Alan Evans (c.1890-1974), by whom bequeathed to the National Gallery 1974; lent to the NPG 1974 (L152/7) until permanently transferred 1994.


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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