Portrait of Willem Bentinck van Rhoon

Willem Bentinck van Rhoon was a prominent Dutch statesman and diplomat, one of the leading figures of the Orangist party in the mid-eighteenth-century Dutch Republic. His portrait, dated 1800, presents a chronological puzzle: Liotard died in 1789, making a date of 1800 impossible if attributed to him. The date may reflect a later inscription error, a posthumous copy, or a misattribution. Bentinck was a sitter well within Liotard's social circle during the 1750s and 1760s, when the artist had extensive Dutch connections, and a portrait of him by Liotard in that period would fit naturally into the documented record. The canvas medium would be appropriate for an official portrait of a statesman of Bentinck's standing, and the work likely belongs to Liotard's Dutch period rather than to any date near 1800.

Oil on canvas, with the confident, controlled handling associated with Liotard's mature work in the medium. Flesh tones are built in careful glazes, and the formal costume of a Dutch statesman is rendered with documentary precision. The composition follows the conventions of official portraiture without departing into personal experiment.