Lot 151: ATTRIBUTED TO ALEXANDER VAN GAELEN 1670-1728

oil on canvas

56 by 88 cm., 22 by 34 1/2 in.

Sir Peter Hope, Midhurst

The present picture is an earlier version of a slightly smaller picture in the Royal Collection depicting Queen Anne in the State Coach (see Oliver Millar, The Tudor, Stuart and Earl Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, 1963, Text Volume p.167, no.488). The work shows William III in his state coach approaching the old Horse Guards, with an escort of Household Cavalry and Walking Footmen and Yeomen of the Guard. The prominent mounted figure to the right is probably Gold Stick. The attribution to Van Gaelen is based upon a fragment of a signature on the picture in the Royal Collection, and also from comparison with a signed work by the artist at The Brighton Art Gallery and Museum, which probably shows a siege during William III's Flanders campaign.

Alexander Van Gaelen, a pupil of Johann van Huchtenburgh, was born in Amsterdam, and after working at the court in Cologne, came to England where he painted battle scenes and a portrait of Queen Anne.