Portrait of Baron Willem Joseph van Ghent

Lieutenant-Admiral Willem van Ghent was fatally wounded by English fire during the Battle of Solebay on 7 June 1672. He was 46 years old. The outcome of the battle against a joint English and French fleet was indecisive. Van Ghent was buried in the Domkerk in Utrecht. This death mask is a study for his tomb, which Rombout Verhulst completed in 1676.