Postcard Queen Emma Painted Portrait Goedhart Het Loo Palace

Museum postcard with a reproduction of a painted portrait of Queen Emma, 1858 to 1934. The painting was made posthumously in 1935 by Jan C.A. Goedhart, 1893 to 1975, and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Paleis Het Loo in Apeldoorn. Emma is shown seated in a dark gown with an elaborate lace collar and veil, a string of pearls and a gemstone brooch, holding a fan. The card was published by Stichting 't Konings Loo, with reproduction photography by A.A.W. Meine Jansen in Gorssel. The reverse bears glue residue and corner damage from removal out of an album.

Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont was the second wife of King William III and regent for her daughter Wilhelmina until the latter came of age in 1898. The portrait shows her in old age, in the mourning dress and lace that marked her public appearance in her final decades. As a posthumous work the painting belongs to the tradition of the commemorative portrait, made to fix an institutional memory rather than from life. This card is a later museum edition after that painting.