Gerard ter Borch | Genre painter

Gerard ter Borch (1617-1681), also known as Gerard Terburg, was an influential and pioneering Dutch genre painter who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.

He influenced fellow Dutch painters Gabriel Metsu, Gerrit Dou, Eglon van der Neer and Johannes Vermeer.

According to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Ter Borch "established a new framework for subject matter, taking people into the sanctum of the home", showing the figures' uncertainties and expertly hinting at their inner lives.

His influence as a painter, however, was later surpassed by Vermeer.

Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic.

He received an excellent education from his father Gerard ter Borch the Elder, also an artist, and developed his talent very early.

The inscription on a study of a head proves that Ter Borch was at Amsterdam in 1632, where he studied possibly under Willem Cornelisz Duyster or Pieter Codde. Duyster's influence can be traced in a picture bearing the date 1638, in the Ionides Bequest (Victoria and Albert Museum).

In 1634 he studied under Pieter de Molijn in Haarlem. A record of this Haarlem period is the Consultation (1635) at the Berlin Gallery.

In 1635 he was in London, and subsequently he travelled in Germany, France, Spain and Italy. His sister Gesina also became a painter.

It is certain that he was in Rome in 1641, when he painted the small portraits on copper of Jan Six, "A Young Lady" (Six Collection, Amsterdam) and the "Portrait of a Gentlemen" (DMK Collection Nuermberg).

In 1648 he was at Münster during the meeting of the congress which ratified the treaty of peace between the Spaniards and the Dutch, and executed his celebrated little picture, painted upon copper, of the assembled plenipotentiaries—a work which, along with the a portrait of a Man Standing, now represents the master in the national collection in London.

The picture was bought by the marquess of Hertford at the Demidoff sale for 1280, and presented to the National Gallery by Sir Richard Wallace, at the suggestion of his secretary, Sir John Murray Scott.

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.

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. | © Wikipedia

Gerard ter Borch è stato un pittore Olandese, specializzato in scene di genere e ritratti.

La sua prima formazione avvenne presso il padre Gerard ter Borch il Vecchio, per poi diventare allievo del pittore di paesaggi Pieter de Molijn a Haarlem.

Stimolato dalla pittura di Rembrandt e degli italiani, nel 1635 si mise in viaggio e soggiornò lungamente in Inghilterra, dove incontrò Anton van Dyck, in Spagna ed a Roma.

Rientrò in patria nel 1645 e risiedette ad Haarlem, Amsterdam e Münster (in Westfalia), dove tra il 1646-1648 fu ritrattista per l'ambasciatore olandese durante le negoziazioni di pace con la Spagna.

Visse poi in numerosi altri posti, fino a stabilirsi a Deventer, dove morì nel 1681.

Abile ritrattista, si specializzò nella pittura di interni e di scene domestiche della borghesia, spesso con gentili accenni ironici.

Nella cura della bellezza fisica del sui soggetti traspaiono infatti talvolta accenni alla transitorietà delle cose mondane e della ricchezza, alla fugacità capricciosa dell'amore, all'essenza talvolta vuota e vana della mondanità.

Fu un vero maestro nel cogliere le sfumature più sottili, tanto figuratamente nella psicologia, quanto realmente nella stesura pittorica, dove seppe cogliere con maestria il diverso incedere della luce sui più svariati materiali. | © Wikipedia