Perfection of Portraiture

During his years in Deventer, Ter Borch continued to explore the challenge of representing portrait likenesses. While continuing to employ a small format, he concentrated on representing his subjects in discreet, yet elaborate formal attire. He also provided them with visual props, such as upholstered chairs and tables protected by tablecloths. These furnishings provide an accent of color while evoking a wealthy interior.

He experimented with his subjects’ poses. Some stand, while others sit, which suggests a hint of informality. More rarely, Ter Borch represented certain sitters from the waist up. While this format refers to well-established Renaissance conventions of the later 16th and early 17th-centuries, it enabled Ter Borch to represent elaborate detail with an unusual degree of finesse. He savored every starched surface, embroidered lace, all types of ribbons and bows, as well as costly features such as fur trim, leather gloves, and ivory-capped canes. In one of his most remarkable later pictures, the artist scrutinizes a seated young man, wearing a fur cap, lost in contemplation as he reads from a printed sheet. The artist’s unwavering concentrated focus allows us an intimate glimpse at this sitter, whose thoughts will remain forever inaccessible to the viewer.


Image Detail: Posthumous Portrait of Moses ter Borch, ca. 1668; Oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.