GERARD TER BORCH
Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course
One of the most famous of the “Little Masters” of Holland was Gerard Ter Borch, or Terburg, as he is sometimes called. This artist, whose pictures are always full of color, loved to paint brilliant cloths and dazzling jewelry. His paintings are pictures pure and simple.
Ter Borch was born at Zwolle, Holland, in 1617. His father, who was also an artist, gave him a good education and developed the youth’s talent very early. The boy evidently was in Amsterdam in 1632, studying under C. Duyster or possibly P. Codde. Duyster’s influence can be traced in a picture bearing the date of 1638. Before this picture was painted, however, in 1634, he studied under Pieter Molyn in Haarlem.
About 1635 Ter Borch went to London and later on he traveled extensively in Germany, France, Spain and Italy. In 1641 he painted some small portraits on copper in Rome. Seven years later he was at Münster during the meeting of the congress which ratified the treaty of peace between Spain and the Netherlands. It was there that he did his famous little picture on copper of the assembled ministers. This picture, together with the “Guitar Lesson” and a “Portrait of a Man Standing,” is now in the National Gallery. The picture of the peace commissioners was bought by the Marquess of Hertford for $36,400, and presented to the gallery by Sir Richard Wallace.
About this time Ter Borch was invited to visit Madrid in Spain. There King Phillip IV gave him employment and honored him with knighthood. However, the artist became involved in an intrigue and was forced to return to Holland.
There he lived for a time at Haarlem. Later on he finally settled in Deventer, where he became a member of the town council. It is as a member of this body that he appears in the portrait now in the Gallery of the Hague. Ter Borch died at Deventer in 1681.
Some critics rank this artist very close to Rembrandt and Franz Hals. He liked to portray the higher social circles of his day with all the stately pomp that distinguished them. This took delicate technical skill in the representation of costly costumes, and in addition to all this, Ter Borch was able to give a poetic charm to the interior of the houses which he portrayed, throwing romantic interest over anything.
The paintings of Ter Borch are quite rare. Only about eighty have been catalogued. His work is free from the touch of grossness that characterized many of the Dutch artists of the time.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 4, SERIAL No. 104
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
National Gallery, London
LADY COCKBURN AND CHILDREN. By Sir Joshua Reynolds
THE NATIONAL GALLERY