This portrait celebrates the erudition and career of the Dutch politician Adriaen Pauw. He is shown in his library, which was one of the largest in the Netherlands at more than 16,000 books, and he wears the gold collar and medal of the Order of Saint Michael, an honor conferred by King Louis XIII of France. The lengthy inscription states that Pauw served as a diplomat to France, Great Britain, and Denmark as well as Holland’s representative to the conference that resulted in the Peace of Münster, which ended the Eighty Years’ War between the Dutch Republic and Habsburg Spain.