King Willem II of the Netherlands seated in his study at the Palace Kneuterdijk, The Hague, with his comptroller Victor Amadeo Trossarello standing in the doorway in the background

King Willem II (1792-1849) was a passionate collector of Old Master Paintings. To display the large collection suitably in his Palace Kneuterdijk in The Hague, the Gothic Hall was built in 1842 next to the Palace. Augustus Wijnantz executed five views of this unique Hall in watercolour (two are kept in the Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), but it is not known if he painted any further interiors in oil besides the present lot.

The paintings hanging in the background in the present lot can be identified as Peter Paul Rubens' The Tribute money on the left and Rembrandt van Rijn's Portrait of Titus on the lower right. As the King acquired Rembrand't Titus in 1843, the present lot must have been executed between 1843 and the year of the King's death, 1849 (See E. Hinterding, "A Small but choice collection: the art Gallery of King Willem II of the Netherlands [a reconstruction of the collection], in Simiolus, XIX, 1989).