In January 1934, princess Juliana travels to Switzerland for a holiday with her parents. It would be her last carefree vacation. A year of great sorrow followed.

A few weeks after the holiday, Queen Mother Emma’s health deteriorated rapidly. Almost daily Wilhelmina and Juliana visited Queen mother Emma at the Palace Lange Voorhout in The Hague. They arrived with worried looks and left sad. Queen Mother Emma eventually died of pneumonia, on March 20. Soon after the funeral services in Delft, the royal family tries to resume their activities. As the honorary president, Juliana put all her energy into the National Crisis Committee.

On April 30, the princess turned 25. Various commemorative items were made, like coins, a dish and a state portrait photo. Bernard de Hoog, an artist best known for his genre paintings (peasant interiors), made a painting based on this state photo. Research indicates that he painting was not commisioned by Juliana herself. Bernard de Hoog may have painted it on his own initiative. In that case it would be a bit of a deviation from his other work; that is: as far as is known, it’s his only (royal) portrait.

As for Princess Juliana herself, she did not like all the attention around her person. After a visit with her mother to the province of Friesland, she left for England on June 14 for a short holiday. With the steamship Batavier V, with which she regurlarly made the crossing, she travelled to the Earl and Countess of Athlone at Kensington Palace.

Despite the quiet time in England, she was concerned about her father’s health. Every day she called her mother, who had returned early from a holiday in Switzerland, because Prince Hendrik had suffered from a severe heart attack at the office of the Red Cross. The doctors did not rule out a second heart attack, and indeed, on July 3, the prince passed away due to a cardiac arrest. Juliana, who was still in England, was informed by her mother by telephone. Immediatly she left England with the Batavier V, to arrive at Hoek van Holland the next day. Heartbroken, she and her mother said goodbye to her father on July 11.

To relax a bit, Queen Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana left for Lillehammer in Norway in August. From then on, the bond between mother and daughter grew further. More and more things were done together, like official working visits within the Netherlands and abroad. Princess Juliana was also given more individual tasks. She took over the representative duties and patronage of her grandmother and her father, like that of the chairman of the Dutch Red Cross.

Later that year, from December 15 until and with December 21, the birthday portrait of Juliana by Bernard de Hoog, was exhibited at the The Hague art dealer D. Sala & Zonen. A short announcement for that exhibition was placed in the local newspaper.

A couple of years ago, this painting by Bernard de Hoog resurfaced when it was sold through an auctionhouse in England. At the moment, the painting is part of a private art collection in the Netherlands.

Courtesy of Mrs. L. van der Borch, Keeper of the Art Collection at the Royal House Archives in The Hague and Mrs V. Kramer, founder of DeOranjes.nl

(Private art collection)