Postcard Prince Bernhard Illustrated Portrait Uniform 1946 Kruseman

Postcard with an illustrated profile portrait of Prince Bernhard in military uniform, signed and dated 1946. The portrait shows the prince with spectacles and an officer's cap, in three-quarter profile to the left, with rank insignia on the collar. The card is a colour reproduction after a drawing and was published by J. Philip Kruseman in The Hague, under number I.K. 147. The card is in good condition.

The portrait dates from the first post-war years, when Prince Bernhard was emphatically pictured in his military role on account of his involvement with the Interior Forces and his position within the armed forces. Unlike the photographic occasional cards of the same period, this card rests on a drawn portrait, a genre the publisher Kruseman issued in a series of princely and military portraits. The choice of a strict profile, a composition that draws on the medal and the commemorative portrait, lends the image a formal and almost numismatic character.

The card is part of a signed portrait series of the Royal House that the publisher Kruseman issued in the first post-war years, drawn by Ingel, with companion cards showing Princess Juliana and Princess Beatrix. Within that series this portrait bears the number I.K. 147.