Mussard, Robert Miniature portrait of Stadhouder... Lot 6469

Mussard, Robert Miniature portrait of Stadhouder Willem IV of Orange (1711, Leeuwarden - 1751, The Hague) with a powdered wig, in pink-edged armor with a white collar and lace jabot, decorated with the blue sash of the Order of the Garter; against a sky background. Signed and dated "R Mussard / 1753" lower left. Watercolor and gum arabic on vellum. D. 4.9 cm. In a gilt brass frame, old label on the reverse hand-inscribed "Guillaume V. Prince / d'Orange, Stadhouder / de Hollande". Karen E. Schaffers-Bodenhausen and Marieke E. Tiethoff-Spliethoff (The Portrait Miniatures in the Collections of the House of Orange-Nassau, Zwolle 1993, p. 98 no. 19) depict a high oval miniature of the Stadhouder by Mussard, unsigned and painted on ivory. A miniature signed with the initials RM, oval in shape and painted on parchment, is discussed and illustrated on pages 25 and 26. It was in the Kugel art dealership in Paris at the time. A further, rectangular version painted on ivory without a signature was offered in the Munich art trade in 1999 (illustrated in Weltkunst, no. 11, April 1, 1999, p. 1806). The compositionally most similar version (position of the right arm) was a rectangular miniature on ivory, unsigned, auctioned at Christie's in London on November 22, 1999, lot 42.