Portret van Willem III, prins van Oranje 1696

Curator: Today, we're looking at Hendrick van Beaumont’s “Portret van Willem III, prins van Oranje,” or "Portrait of William III, Prince of Orange." It’s a colored pencil drawing, created around 1696. Editor: My first impression? I feel as if I'm glimpsing a figure fading back into history, a king preserved by careful artistry with his image, just before he completely slips away. It's so delicate. Curator: Yes, there's something remarkably immediate about it. I’m intrigued by Van Beaumont's choice of colored pencil. Drawing, particularly during William's reign, was undergoing interesting changes tied to the availability and trade of materials and the increased value in quickly sketching for reproductions. Editor: True, it does feel like a quick sketch. He seems trapped in amber almost! I feel this work captures both immense power and a haunting fragility. Is it because pencil lends itself to capturing delicate curls, a powdered, vulnerable kind of texture? Curator: Consider the material reality: pigment, graphite, the source of the paper and binder, a whole colonial apparatus to source these materials, a highly competitive, very unevenly paid marketplace for creating royal portraits in multiples… it points to a system churning out status markers, one drawing at a time. Editor: And yet, that intimate touch… each stroke meticulously crafted. It reminds me that even mass-produced images can carry the spark of a human spirit—perhaps that of both William and the hand that rendered it. To think of all those pencils that had to be sharpened! Curator: Ultimately, this portrait offers us not just an image of power, but also a snapshot of how power circulated through art-making. The means and materiality make Beaumont’s portraits revealing and impactful objects. Editor: It is kind of beautiful. In the end, "Portret van Willem III, prins van Oranje” asks us to slow down, and imagine the person that was.