Gerard ter Borch (; December 1617 – 8 December 1681), also known as Gerard Terburg (), was a Dutch Golden Age painter mainly of genre subjects. He influenced his fellow Dutch painters Gabriel Metsu, Gerrit Dou, Eglon van der Neer and Johannes Vermeer. represents the master in the National Gallery in London. The picture was bought by the Marquess of Hertford at the Demidoff sale for £7280, and presented to the National Gallery by Sir Richard Wallace, at the suggestion of his secretary, Sir John Murray Scott.

thumb|upright|His sister [[Gesina ter Borch|Gesina modelled for his painting Sitting Young Woman ( 1650)]]

At this time ter Borch was invited to visit Madrid, where he received employment and the honour of knighthood from Philip IV, but, in consequence of an intrigue, it is said, he was obliged to return to the Netherlands. One of his great patrons was Amsterdam burgomaster and statesman Andries de Graeff. He seems to have resided for a time in Haarlem; but he finally settled in Deventer, where he became a member of the town council, as which he appears in the portrait now in the gallery of The Hague. He died at Deventer in 1681.

Notable works

Ter Borch is a significant painter of genre subjects. He is known for his rendering of texture in draperies, for example in The Letter and in The Gallant Conversation, engraved by Johann Georg Wille.

Ter Borch's works are comparatively rare; about eighty have been catalogued. Six of these are at the Hermitage Museum, six at the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, five at the Louvre, four at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, three at the Getty Center, and two at the Wallace Collection.

A pair of portraits were located at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C., highlighted in 2010 by Blake Gopnik, now in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

The artist's painting The Suitor's Visit, c. 1658, oil on canvas, 80 x 75 cm (31½ × 29 9/16 in.) in the Andrew W. Mellon Collection, was used on the cover of Marilyn Stokstad's second edition of Art History.

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File:Gerard ter Borch - Man on Horseback.jpg|Man on Horseback (1634)

File:EinzugdesGesandten AdriaenPauw.jpg|Adrian Pauw's arrival in Münster (1646)

File:Gerard ter Borch (II) "De Koestal".jpg|A Maid Milking a Cow in a Barn ( 1652–54)

File:Gerard ter Borch - The Messenger, known as 'The Unwelcome News' - 176 - Mauritshuis.jpg|The Messenger (The Unwelcome News) (1653), Mauritshuis

File:Gerard ter Borch (II) 019.jpg|The Gallant Conversation (The Paternal Admonition) ()

File:Gerard ter Borch d. J. 004.jpg|The concert (1655)

File:Gerard ter Borch d. J. 001.jpg|Woman writing a letter ( 1655)

File:Gerard ter Borch (II) - The Letter - WGA22120.jpg|The letter ( 1655)

File:Målning. Familjebild. Gerard ter Borch - Hallwylska museet - 86722.tif|Portrait of a Family (after 1656)

File:Borch Officer.jpg|An officer dictating a letter ( 1657–58)

File:A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier MET DP145907.jpg|A Woman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier, circa 1658, Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:Gerard ter Borch the Younger - The Suitor's Visit - Google Art Project.jpg|The Suitor's Visit ()

File:Gerhard Terborch.jpg|Lady at her Toilette (1660)

File:Gerard Terborch - A Lady Reading a Letter.JPG|A Lady Reading a Letter (1662)

File:Gerard ter Borch (II) - The Glass of Lemonade - WGA22118.jpg|Glass of Lemonade ( 1664)

File:Woman Reading a Letter 1660-1662 Gerard ter Borch II.jpg|The Letter ( 1660–1665)

File:Jacob de Graeff, heer van Purmerland en Ilpendam.jpg|Portrait of Jacob de Graeff, free lord of Purmerland and Ilpendam (between 1670 and 1681)

File:Cornelis de Graeff (1650-1678).png|Portrait of Cornelis HrR Ridder de Graeff (1673)

File:Le Galant Militaire ou jeune femme à laquelle un homme offre de l'argent - Gerard ter Borch.jpg|The Military Gallant, Louvre Museum

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Claim for Nazi-looted art

In 2007, the heirs to the retail magnate Max Emden requested that the National Gallery of Victoria restitute the Gerard ter Borch painting Lady with a Fan which Emden had owned prior to the rise of the Nazis.

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Gerard Terburg (Ter Borch) et sa famille, by Emile Michel (Paris, 1887) on archive.org
  • Der künstlerische Entwickelungsgang des C. Ter Borch, by Dr W Bode (Berlin, 1881)
  • Maîtres d'autre fois, by Eugène Fromentin (4th ed., Paris, 1882)
  • Gerard Ter Borch, by Eduard Plietzsch (1944) on archive.org
  • Vermeer and The Delft School, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Gerard ter Borch (see index)
  • The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Gerard ter Borch (cat. no. 1)
  • Fifteenth- to eighteenth-century European paintings: France, Central Europe, the Netherlands, Spain, and Great Britain, a collection catalog fully available online as a PDF, which contains material on Gerard ter Borch (cat. no. 33-34)
  • Dutch and Flemish paintings from the Hermitage, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Gerard ter Borch (cat. no. 3-4)
  • Gerard ter Borch, by Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. et al., an exhibition catalog from National Gallery of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2004.
  • At Home with Ter Borch – Artist Family in Zwolle, by Marjorie E. Wieseman et al., an exhibition catalog from Museum de Fundatie and WBooks, Zwolle, 2025.
  • Works and literature on Gerard ter Borch