Skip to main content

Gerard ter Borch, 'Portrait of a Young Man', about 1663

About the work

In the early 1660s, when this portrait was made, this fancy outfit, bedecked with ruffles, ribbons and lace, was the height of sophisticated dressing, inspired by the latest fashions in Paris and employing the most expensive fabrics and tailoring.

We don’t know who the sitter is, though it seems almost certain that he was a wealthy burgher from the Dutch town of Deventer where ter Borch had settled in 1654. He was certainly a man of status, upright and conscious of demonstrating his social and financial status.

And he was apparently not afraid to alienate some of his more conservative contemporaries. Such ostentatious dressing was not universally approved of in the Netherlands at the time. Stricter Calvinists (who followed Calvinism, a branch of Protestantism) would certainly have raised their eyebrows at what one contemporary writer referred to as ‘immoderately loose and long garments… redolent of over-abundance and profligacy’.

Key facts

Full title
Portrait of a Young Man
Artist
Gerard ter Borch
Artist dates
1617 - 1681
Date made
about 1663
Medium and support
oil on canvas
Dimensions
67.3 × 54.3 cm
Acquisition credit
Bought, 1894
Inventory number
NG1399
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection
Previous owners

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

More works by Gerard ter Borch

A Woman playing a Lute to Two Men
A Woman playing a Lute to Two Men
Gerard ter Borch
Scenes of small groups of people making music were common in seventeenth-century Dutch painting. They reflected a popular social activity among sophisticated families and as such might symbolise the harmony of family life or friendship groups. But such parties were also an accepted way for young...
Room 17
An Officer dictating a Letter
An Officer dictating a Letter
Gerard ter Borch
A young officer dictates a letter to another soldier. Meanwhile their comrade – in the impressive blue jerkin – stares directly out of the painting. He’s a messenger, waiting to deliver the letter. His faintly amused expression and the way he catches our eye creates a conspiratorial air: there’s...
Room 17
Portrait of Hermanna van der Cruis
Portrait of Hermanna van der Cruis
Gerard ter Borch
This serious-looking woman is Hermanna van der Cruis. She was married to Abraham van Suchtelen, who held many posts in national and local government in the Netherlands. The portrait was probably made in the second half of the 1660s, when Hermanna was about 50, a wealthy widow and respected in the...
Not on display
The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster
The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster
Gerard ter Borch
This painting records a key moment in European political history: the confirmation of the treaty which formally granted independence to the Dutch nation from Spanish control in 1648. The key figures are the six Dutch and two Spanish delegates, shown in the centre swearing the treaty oath, and ter...
On display elsewhere