summoned to paint the king and queen and Houbraken in 1696 (1721). He was travelling under the patronageof James Stanhope, later 1st Earl Stanhope (1673–1721), with the ultimate intention of seeing Rome. Closterman’s visit to Madrid from the autumn of 1698 to the spring of 1699 is documented in Alexander Stanhope’s letters to his son James (Martinez Leiva 2018),