William Stanley (c.1647–1731), Master (1693–1698), Dean of St Asaph (1706–1731)

William Stanley served as Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from 1693 to 1698, and later became Dean of St Asaph in 1706, a position he held until his death in 1731. Jean-Baptiste van Loo painted this portrait around 1750, which places it as a posthumous or commemorative commission rather than a life portrait — Stanley died nearly two decades before the painting's apparent date. Such institutional portraits were common practice: colleges and cathedral chapters commissioned retrospective likenesses for their portrait galleries, sometimes working from earlier images or descriptions. The portrait now resides at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, a different institution from the Cambridge college Stanley actually led, suggesting it may relate to another aspect of his career. Van Loo's manner served such commemorative purposes well, lending subjects an air of Rococo elegance and composed authority.

The portrait follows van Loo's established institutional formula, presenting the sitter in clerical or academic dress with a composed three-quarter pose. The handling of the dark robes against the warm background creates a tonal contrast that highlights the face. Academic and clerical dress receive careful differentiation of fabric texture.