Portrait of Willem Graaf Bentinck (1704-1774)

Willem Graaf Bentinck (1704–1774) was a Dutch nobleman of the House of Bentinck, which had English and German connections through the first Earl of Portland—a close favourite of William III who had accompanied the Dutch Stadtholder when he became King of England in 1688. By the mid-eighteenth century the family was established across the European aristocratic network, and Willem was a significant figure in Dutch political life. Liotard's portrait, undated and without a current institutional attribution, was likely made during his visits to the Dutch Republic, where he maintained an active practice. The Bentinck family appears twice in this batch—there is also a Rijksmuseum portrait of Willem Bentinck van Rhoon, likely the same individual in different contexts. Liotard's Dutch portraits form a coherent body of work documenting the governing class of the Republic in its final decades before the Batavian upheaval of the 1790s.

Oil on paper: Liotard's choice of oil on paper rather than canvas creates a different surface quality—more absorbent, requiring faster decisions and less opportunity for reworking. The technique demands confident, economical brushwork that suits his characteristically direct approach.