This portrait is of the type established by Michiel van Mierevelt as court painter of Prince Maurice of Nassau and replicated in great numbers by his studio. Mierevelt, who was born in Delft, was trained in Utrecht by Anthonie van Blocklandt. By 1613 he had joined the painters’ guild in Delft, although he worked extensively in The Hague at the Stadtholder’s court.

The portrait shows Maurice as a member of the Order of the Garter wearing the lesser George on a ribbon. The discoloured retouching on the face is distracting but the picture looks to be a solid product of the Miervelt workshop and was presumably acquired by Horace de Vere during his time in the Hague. Between 1611 and 1616 Maurice commissioned an extensive group of portraits of officers in his service from the workshop of the Hague-based artist Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn (1572–1657), which included a portrait of Vere and this almost certainly served as the model that Vere sought to emulate in his own set of portraits of military captains under his command.