(Antwerp 1569–1622 Paris)
Portrait of Prince Philip William of Orange (1554–1618) in a cuirass and with the Order of the Golden Fleece,
inscribed at upper left: Joannes Tserclaes/Graf von Tilli,
oil on canvas, 102 x 83 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Thierry Guyot de Mishaegen de Beauffort (1898–1973), Kasteel van Mishaegen, Brasschaat, Belgium

Exhibited:
Laarne, Portraits du 15ème au 18ème Siècle (according to a label on the reverse);
Groeninge Museum, Bruges, La Toison d’Or: cinq siècles d’art et d’histoire, 1962

Literature:
La Toison d’Or: cinq siècles d’art et d’histoire, ed. by H. Pauwels, exhibition catalogue, Groeninge Museum, Bruges, 1962, pp. 217/18, cat. no. 182

We are grateful to Sabine Craft Giepmans for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph.

This portrait is an interesting increment to the known early oeuvre of Frans Pourbus the Younger, who would later become one of the leading portraitists at the French court. According to the inscription added to the painting at a later date, it was long considered a portrait of the imperial field marshal Tilly. However, this was already called into question in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition held in 1962. Today we know that the sitter is Philip William of Orange. The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes preserves a partial copy of the painting offered here that is attributed to Frans Pourbus the Elder. Yet this attribution cannot be upheld, for Philip William of Orange did not receive the Order of the Golden Fleece before 1599, by which time Pourbus the Elder had already died. Stylistic resemblances between the father’s late work and the son’s early work frequently led to such confusions.

Frans Pourbus the Younger, who was only twelve years old when his father died, became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1591. In 1599 he was appointed court painter to the governors in Brussels. Only a short time later, Vincenzo I Gonzaga called him to Mantua as a court painter, where he collaborated with Peter Paul Rubens. The present painting must therefore have been executed between 1599, when the prince received the Order of the Golden Fleece, and 1600, when Pourbus departed for Mantua. This would also fit in with the stylistic development of the artist, whose style was still less international and refined in those days, whereas his later works were influenced by Rubens and other contemporaries.

Prince Philip William of Orange was the son of William the Silent and Anna of Egmondt. In 1568 he was brought to Spain as a hostage. He studied in Spain and later became a loyal friend of the Spanish king. After the murder of his father in 1584, his brother Maurice of Orange was appointed governor of the Netherlands instead of him, which caused considerable tensions in the relationship between the two brothers. The prince only returned to the Netherlands in 1596. He died in 1618, leaving behind no heirs from his marriage to Éléonore de Bourbon-Condé.

Additional picture
Kasteel van Mishaegen, Brasschaat, Belgium