National Gallery of Art

Biography

The most accomplished member of a gifted and well-to-do artistic family, Gerard ter Borch II was born in 1617 in Zwolle. Probably not long after the death of his mother, Anna Bufken, in 1621, Ter Borch began his training with his father, the draughtsman Gerard ter Borch the Elder (1584-1662). Ter Borch was clearly a precocious pupil: an accomplished drawing of a figure seen from behind (Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam) dates September 25, 1625, when he was only eight years old. An inscription on another drawing suggests that he was in Amsterdam by 1632, but in 1633 he was back in Zwolle. The following year he went to Haarlem to study with Pieter de Molijn, and entered the guild there in 1635. The same year Ter Borch undertook the first of his many trips abroad, traveling to London to work with his uncle, the engraver Robert van Voerst. According to Houbraken (see person bibliography), the painter visited Italy, Spain, and France, as well as various parts of the Netherlands and Flanders, in subsequent years.

By 1646 Ter Borch was in Münster, Westphalia, where he painted a number of small works, and also his famous group portrait, The Swearing of the Oath of Ratification of the Treaty of Münster (1648, National Gallery, London, inv. no. 896). Houbraken suggests that it was also in 1648 that Ter Borch traveled with the Conde de Peñaranda to Madrid, where he painted portraits of King Philip IV and his court. Other documents place the artist in Amsterdam in November 1648, The Hague in 1649, Kampen in 1650, and Delft on April 22, 1653, when he and Johannes Vermeer were co-witnesses to the signing of an affidavit. On February 14, 1654 he married Geertruyt Matthijs, with whom he settled in Deventer, becoming a citizen on February 13, 1655, and a gemeensman [city counselor] in 1666. Although documents indicate he again visited Amsterdam in 1674 and The Hague and Haarlem in 1675, Ter Borch lived in Deventer until his death on 8 December 1681.

In his earliest works, Ter Borch depicted barrack-room scenes similar to those of Willem Duyster (1598/1599-1635) and Pieter Codde (1599-1678). Most of his later genre scenes, however, focused on the more refined elements of Dutch society. These works are generally small and upright in format, typically depicting two or three elegantly-clad, full-length figures engaged in an activity such as letter-writing or music-making, and executed with an interest in the psychology of the sitters. Ter Borch also painted a large number of small-scale, full-length portraits. Ter Borch's most important student was Caspar Netscher (c. 1639-1684), who learned much of his master's ability to render luxurious textures, and who painted, in addition to his own original compositions, a number of signed copies of his master's works. [This is an edited version of the artist's biography published, or to be published, in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]

Bibliography

1753

Houbraken 1753, 3:32, 34-40.

1829

Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 4(1833):111-142; 9(1842):529.

1907

Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century.... 8 vols., translated from the German edition. London, 1907-1917: 5(1913):1-145.

1943

Hannema, Fr. Gerard Terborch. Amsterdam, 1943.

1944

Plietzsch, Eduard. Gerard ter Borch. Vienna, 1944.

1960

Gudlaugsson, Sturla. Geraert ter Borch. 2 vols. The Hague, 1959-1960.

1974

Gerard Ter Borch: Zwolle 1617 - Deventer 1681. Exh. cat. Mauritshuis, The Hague; Landesmuseum, Münster. The Hague, 1974.

1984

Philadelphia 1984, 152-154.

1989

Kettering, Alison McNeil. Drawings from the Ter Borch Studio Estate. 2 vols. Amsterdam, 1989.

1992

MacLaren, Neil. National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. London, 1992: 31-32.

1995

Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 26.