Double Portrait of Frederik Hendrik (1584- 1647) and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels (1602- 1675)

This portrait of Stadholder Frederik Hendrik and Amalia of Solms was painted by their court painter, Gerrit van Honthorst. It is clearly an official state portrait: the couple are depicted in all their finery, life-size and full length. It was made to mark Frederik Hendrik’s recapture of Breda in 1637.

Van Honthorst painted the portrait for the Grote Zaal (Large Hall) at Huis ter Nieuburg, one of the stadholder’s residences near Rijswijk, but the painting was later lost. The painting here is a copy made by Van Honthorst for Constantijn Huygens, Frederik Hendrik’s secretary. It originally hung in Huygens’s home on the Plein, opposite the Mauritshuis.