King William III

This portraitback to top

Showing William III in state robes. A copy, with minor variations in the draperies and the carpet, of the portrait by Brandon painted in 1697 for the Trêveszaal in the Binnenhof, The Hague. [1] Another copy is at Het Loo, [2] and a version was sold Maak van Waay, Amsterdam, 10 May 1971, lot 26. [3] Piper noted the similarity of the pose with Kneller’s Charles II (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 3023). Brandon’s standing three-quarter-length of the King in armour, uses the same face mask.
Brandon also made a three-quarter-length copy of the Kneller coronation portrait for the municipality of ‘s Hertogenbosch.

Footnotesback to top

1) Illus. S. van Raaij & P. Spies, The Royal Progress of William and Mary, Amsterdam, 1988, p 4.
2) Letter from Wies Erkelens, Het Loo, 10 January 1990 (NPG archive); lent by the Nassau-Dietz family, Oranienstein.
3) Sceptre in right hand, left hand on hip, robes over his right knee, left leg behind right, with building upper right; no putto on chair.

Referenceback to top

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, p 379 as by an unknown artist.

Provenanceback to top

The Counts MacCarthy Reagle,¹ Château de Franquières, Grenoble; Mme. Georges Forest-Colcombet (d. 1960), by whom presented 1960.

¹ A French family of Irish descent, ennobled 1776.

Exhibitionsback to top

On loan to the Ministry of Works 1960–92; Oudenaarde, En Stad, een Koning, een Veldheer, Oudenaarde, 2008.


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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