Portrait of Maria of Orange (1642-1688), with Hendrik van Nassau-Zuylestein (d. 1673) and a Servant
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All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
All our images can be downloaded in high resolution from our website for non-commercial use (research/study, educational purposes, personal blogs and social media).
Would you like to use our images in a publication? Please mention our credit line: "Mauritshuis, The Hague."
Commercial use
Would you like to use our images for commercial purposes? We would be happy to discuss this with you. Please contact our marketing department at images@mauritshuis.nl.
Jan Mijtens Portrait of Maria of Orange (1642-1688), with Hendrik van Nassau-Zuylestein (d. 1673) and a Servant
On view in Room 8
This is Princess Maria of Orange with her nephew Hendrik to the left and a second boy to the right. His name is unknown. He was one of the black servants at the court and was presumably brought to the Dutch Republic as a young boy by the WIC – as a present for the princess.
Maria was the seventh and youngest daughter of Stadholder Frederik Hendrik and Amalia van Solms. Mijtens portrayed her shortly before her marriage. The wedding was celebrated in Cleves, at the residence of her favourite uncle Johan Maurits.
This is Maria of Orange at the age of 19, with her cousin and a servant. She is not wearing the usual attire of a wealthy 17th-century woman. The colours of her costume are pretty bright, for one thing. Women usually wore black. What’s more, the outfit is much too big, and she is wearing her hair loose. Women never wore their hair loose – only men did. Is this actually a woman? Yes it is, but in this painting she is wearing men’s clothing: a loose-fitting riding suit with a cravat – the forerunner of the necktie – plus a red bow and a man’s wig. We do not know why she is dressed like this, but we do know that such outfits caused an outcry at the time. It was simply not done for a woman to dress this way!
Portrait of Maria of Orange (1642-1688), with Hendrik van Nassau-Zuylestein (d. 1673) and a Servant
Object name
painting
Inventory number
114
On view in
Room 8
Material and technical details
Technique
oil
Material
canvas
Dimensions
150 x 185.5 cm
Inscriptions
Signed and dated
middle right, on the tree: JANMijtens F: 16 [..] JANM in ligature
Provenance
Probably by inheritance to Albertine Agnes of Orange-Nassau, the sitter’s sister, Oranienstein Palace, Diez, recorded in 1695; National Konst-Gallery, The Hague; found in the attic of the Mauritshuis, 1875
