Portrait of Stadholder-King William III (1650-1702) surrounded by a Garland of Flowers

When Daniel Seghers finished this garland, the portrait in the middle was not yet in it. The Mauritshuis says the small bust was added after the painter's death in 1661, by a hand nobody has identified.

The canvas is dated 1660. The boy it would come to honour, William III, was then ten. His father had died eight days before he was born, and Holland, the leading province, had left the post of stadholder empty ever since. Even before the portrait, the flowers pointed to his house. Among the roses are orange lilies and orange-tree blossom, a nod to his dynasty.

The picture probably went from Seghers as a gift to Constantijn Huygens, secretary to the princes, and stayed in the Huygens family house until 1842. William became stadholder in 1672 and king of England in 1689, which is why the title gives him both offices.