The art collections and museum of King William II of the Netherlands (1792–1849)

Abstract

Abstract King William II of the Netherlands (1792–1849) created important art collections with the benefit of advice from leading dealers at home and abroad, for which special premises were built in one of the royal palaces in The Hague. Whenever the monarch was not in residence, these were made accessible to visitors. Following William’s sudden death in 1849 almost everything was sold and the paintings are now distributed around the world. An attempt is made here to reconstruct the contemporary presentation of these collections, both in The Hague and before that in the palace in Brussels; online appendices present, respectively, an account of the images of the collection in the Kneuterdijk Palace, The Hague (1842–1850); a chronological list of the acquisitions of William as prince and king in 1817–28 and 1837–48; and details of eleven paintings now in the Wallace Collection.