A plaster bust of William I of the Netherlands by Louis Royer (Mechelen 1793 - Amsterdam 1868) Signed and dated 1818 on the side H. 75.5 cm Provenance: - Collection Constantinus Emilius Gosuinus Ghislenus de Bors d'Overen, mayor of Malines - Auction Rue des Vaches, Malines, 29 January 1852 - Auction Galerie Moderne, Elsene, April 2006 - Private collection, Louvain, acquired from the above - Private collection, Antwerp, acquired from the above in 2015 Exhibition: Société de Malines pour l'Encouragement des Beaux Arts, Malines, 1818, cat.no. 101 Literature: - P.K. van Daalen, Nederlandse beeldhouwers in de negentiende eeuw, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1956, p. 101, no. 11 - C. Engelen & M. Marx, La sculpture en Belgique à partir de 1830, 2006, p. 312 (ill.) Note: Within the impoverished field of Dutch nineteenth-century sculpture that was strongly defined by foreign or foreign-educated sculptors, Louis Royer was one of the most important figures. After studying in Paris and Mechelen, and winning the first Prix de Rome in 1823, he left for Italy