Kneller was born in Lubeck, studied with Rembrandt in Amsterdam and by 1676 was working in England as a fashionable portrait painter. He painted seven British monarchs (Charles II, James II, William III, Mary II, Anne, George I and George II), though his portraits of Charles II are not longer in the collection, and in 1715 was the first artist to be made a Baronet (the next was John Everett Millais in 1885). A set of portraits of naval heroes was given by George IV to the Royal Naval Hospital in Greenwich in 1824. A half-length portrait of William III (1650-1702), seated facing quarter to the left, his head turned half to the right. He is wearing Garter robes, collar of the Order of the Garter and greater George; with a long lace cravat and wearing a long dark curly wig.