# Mary Stuart, Princess of Orange, as Widow of William II

- By: Bartholomeus van der Helst (Haarlem, 1613–1670)
- Date: 1652
- Medium: canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification: painting
- Dimensions: height 199.5 cm x width 170 cm
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/SK-A-142--e3a4c174e44fd36c366da0cb77286ffb)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iiif.micr.io/EcygS/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Princess of Orange Mary Stuart I is dressed in white, the traditional colour of mourning for a noble. Her husband, Stadholder William II, had died two years earlier. Mary was keen to secure the succession of her very young son. This portrait alludes to that claim to stadtholdership: she holds an orange, symbolizing the House of Orange. At the left is depicted the Stadtholders’ Gate of the Binnenhof (Inner Court) in The Hague.