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