ABSTRACT
William III was born into a great age of portraiture and of royal portraiture especially. Painters such as Velázquez and Van Dyck in the earlier seventeenth century, and Lely and Rigaud in William’s own time, produced images of royalty which were admired by contemporaries and which remain familiar today. It is not surprising that William himself should have benefited from the princely image-making that was so typical of his time. From birth he was a sovereign prince – even though his principality, the mainly Protestant stronghold of Orange on the Rhône in south-eastern France, was a small one. As a native of the Netherlands, moreover, he grew up in a country with a strong tradition of portraiture, sustained by techniques of engraving and printing which were at least as well developed as those of painting. No wonder, then, that William was portrayed so often, in so many different activities and in such a variety of media. Indeed, it would not be difficult to find contemporary images illustrating almost every aspect and period of his public career, executed in media ranging from the higher forms of painting, tapestry and sculpture, through medals and prints, down to glasses, plates and tiles. 1
