Cast and patinated.

Good.

…; donated by Sophie, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Grand Duchess of Sachsen-Weimar (1824-1897), to the museum, 1888; on loan to the Nederlands Leger- en Wapenmuseum ‘Generaal Hoefer’, Leiden, 1953; on loan to the Legermuseum, Delft, 1986-2013

Object number: BK-NM-8516

Credit line: Gift of H.R.H. Grand Duchess of Saxen-Weimar

The Dutch King William II (William Frederick George Louis of Orange-Nassau) is wearing the uniform of a general, with an ermine cloak draped over his left shoulder. His right hand rests on the crown while holding the sceptre, in the other he is holding a pair of gloves. The statuette, dated 1844 and signed by Jozef Geefs (1808-1885) is 61 centimetres in height and was made during the subject’s rein, four years after his coronation. This might be the model, cast in bronze, for an 88-centimetres high marble version made in 1848 which belongs in the royal collection.¹¹Stichting Historische Verzamelingen van het Huis van Oranje-Nassau, inv. no. 4-B-006. That collection also contains another cast in bronze, and a third example belongs to the Geschiedkundige Vereniging Oranje-Nassau (on loan to Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn).²²Stichting Historische Verzamelingen van het Huis van Oranje-Nassau, inv. no. B/026 and Jaarverslag Vereniging Oranje-Nassau Museum 1975, p. 12, fig. 2, respectively.

The Amsterdam bronze was donated to the Rijksmuseum in 1888 by the king’s youngest daughter, princess Sophie of Orange-Nassau, the grand duchess of Saxe-Weimar. Bergé discovered that the portrait part was practically identical to a plaster bust of the king, with an indistinct signature, in the hallway of the Koning Willem II College in Tilburg. That portrait probably originated from the royal palace in that town - the building which had once housed the college.³³W. Bergé, ‘Jean-Louis van Geel (1787-1852): Een portretbuste van kroonprins Willem (II)’, Antiek 29 (1994), pp. 51-57, esp. p. 55. The incomplete signature on that plaster sculpture (…Gee...) could relate either to Geefs, the modeller of the figures in Amsterdam and Apeldoorn, or to his teacher, Jean-Louis van Geel (1787-1852), who was appointed court sculptor to the king in 1816. Both artists worked in a similar, toned-down variant of Neoclassicism.

The more-than-life-size bronze statue by Edouard François Georges (1817-1895) which was erected at the Buitenhof square in The Hague in 1854 (since 1924 at the Heuvel square in Tilburg) and the lesser known marble statue of 1865 by Wilhelm Hornberger in Arnhem at Bronbeek estate portray King William II in the same military attire and in comparable pose. The similarities between the three sculptures are based on a common source of inspiration: the official portraits made of the king by the painter Jan Adam Kruseman in 1840-50. Geefs’ version, with the pedestal with the crown, as well as the sceptre and gloves in his hands, the royal robe draped over his shoulder and on the pedestal, and the sword leaning against his left leg, are almost literally the same as in the portrait of William II in Keppel castle. This painting was created to mark the monarch’s accession to the throne on November 28, 1840.⁴⁴Stichting Pallandt van Keppel collection, see RKD images, no. 150314, and E. Lipke-Deetman et al., Jan Adam Kruseman 1804-1862, exh. cat. Apeldoorn (Paleis Het Loo) 2002, no. 384. My thanks to Theo van Berkel for identifying this painting as an accession portrait, likely identical to the one by Kruseman mentioned in several Dutch newspapers throughout 1841 (written communication 26 May 2026).

Bieke van der Mark, 2026

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 457, with earlier literature

B. van der Mark, 2026, 'Jozef Geefs, King William II of the Netherlands (1792-1849), Antwerp, 1844', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035889