Willem I (1533-84), Prince of Orange, Called William the Silent

Around 1579, when Key painted him, William of Orange was the leader of the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule. That January several northern provinces had signed the Union of Utrecht, the alliance from which the Dutch Republic would grow, and the panel now hangs in the museum's room on the birth of that Republic. Key shows him close up, in a plain black cap, a starched white ruff edged with lace, and a fur collar over a dark doublet trimmed with gold braid. The face is lined and the eyes look tired, and there is no armour or emblem of rank anywhere. The panel came to the Rijksmuseum in 1933, exactly 400 years after William's birth, bought with help from the committee of an exhibition devoted to him.