This is one of the most interesting historical portraits in England, and probably one of the most faithful. Rembrandt was never a flatterer ; he did not care enough for beauty or grace to think them necessary to his pictures, but he did care for a certain kind of truth, especially truth of character. There is at least a difference equally wide between princely portraiture of this simple kind and the bedizened princes of the grand sizlcle in France, when all great personages, however youthful, were made to look prodigious in robes, and ribbons, and wigs, and lace, and pride. The face of young William is presented here just in its natural plainness, and the boy gives himself no airs of any kind, but looks straight before him, fearlessly and without affectation, just as in after-life he could look defeat itself in the face to see whether anything could be made of it. The aspect is not that of a robust boyhood, and we know that this boy was delicate. What is on the boy’s left shoulder (to the spectator’s right) we do not pretend to know, but Rembrandt seems to have intended it for some arrangement of drapery. There is nothing visible in the background except darkness. Almost the whole attention of the piece appears to have been concentrated on the face.