Frederick Rihel on Horseback

This is one of the largest things Rembrandt ever painted, and one of only two life-size equestrian portraits of a private citizen in all of Dutch art — riders on this scale were meant to be princes, not merchants. The man is Frederik Rihel, a wealthy Amsterdam businessman. He almost certainly commissioned it to mark a proud day in 1660, when he rode in the mounted guard of honour that escorted the ten-year-old Prince William of Orange into the city. Look into the gloom behind him and you can still make out that procession winding past a city gate, a coach with a red-and-yellow interior among the figures.