Gerard ter Borch

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.

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.

Gallery

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.