The Princess of Orange Visits the Studio of Bartholomeus van der Helst

Mary Stuart, the widow of Stadtholder William II, looks at her portrait in the workshop of the 17th-century painter Van der Helst. In the background is his unfinished monumental painting Banquet of the Civic Guard, in which the militiamen celebrate the end of the Eighty Years’ War. For his likeness of the princess, Scholten relied on an existing portrait, also by Van der Helst. Scholten thus demonstrated his knowledge of both 17th-century Dutch painting and national history.