Portrait of Frederik Hendrik (1584-1647)

Frederik Hendrik, prince of Orange and stadholder of the Dutch Republic, is shown here as commander-in-chief of the army. The design is by Gerard van Honthorst, his court painter, and this painted oval on panel is one of the copies made in Honthorst's studio. The museum dates it after 1647, the year the prince died, so the copyist was painting a man who was no longer alive.

It hangs in Room 1 of the Mauritshuis, the house built for Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, the prince's second cousin. Frederik Hendrik was a collector himself and owned paintings by Rembrandt. This panel had come to the museum by 1841.