This is the earliest known painted view showing Kensington Palace, not long after William III completed his gallery wing to the south of the Palace. The fallow deer in what was still royal Hyde Park – now Kensington Gardens – are the main point of interest for the original owner of the picture, who may have been an official such as the Ranger of the Park. William III and his successors at Kensington Palace, Anne and Georges I and II, were all keen on deer hunting, which explains why they had a paddock for the royal herd just outside the Palace garden wall you can see here. This soon developed into a royal menagerie with tigers and other wild beasts. The artist has been influenced by animal painter Francis Barlow, who occasionally also included buildings in his pictures, as did Jan Wyck, the Dutch painter working in England.