Ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle, Dutch Republic (now the Netherlands). His father, Gerard ter Borch Sr., was an artist who had lived in Italy, but from 1621 he was employed as a tax collector. Anna Bufkens was Gerard ter Borch's mother.
At first, Gerard ter Borch studied with his father in his native Zwolle. Unlike most Dutch artists of his time, he travelled extensively. In 1632, at the age of fifteen, he was already in Amsterdam. In 1634 he moved to Haarlem to study under the direction of Pieter de Molyn in Haarlem. He finished his training the following year.
Ter Borch visited England in 1635 and Rome in 1640. From about 1645 to 1648 he was in Germany. In 1648 he was at Münster during the meeting of the congress which ratified the treaty of peace between the Spaniards and the Dutch. The masterpiece of this period, The Swearing of the Oath of Ratification of the Treaty of Münster (1648), was a group portrait of the signatories to the treaty that gave the Dutch independence from Spain. It includes more than 50 recognizable portraits. The painter asked for this work the enormous price of 6, 000 guilders. Obviously, no buyer was found, for the picture was in the hands of his widow after his death.
After a stay in Madrid Gerard ter Borch finally moved back to his own country at the end of 1650, with a stop in Brussels, where he received a gold chain with a metal bearing an image of the Spanish kings. In 1655 he settled in Deventer, where he became a member of the town council. There he won both professional and social success.
After beginning his career with guardroom scenes, ter Borch turned to paintings of elegant society. His gifts for delicate characterization and exquisite depiction of fine materials ideally suited for it. His best-known artwork, the subject of a charming passage by Goethe, was the so-called Parental Admonition (1655).
Gerard ter Borch’s works consisted almost equally of portraits and genre pieces. His characteristically delicate technique could be appreciated in the portraits of small almost miniature scale. However, many of them were full-length.
In colour his paintings tended to be subdued, mainly because of the sober costume of the times. In his earlier years, he painted many guardroom subjects in the manner of Pieter Codde and Willem Duyster. Later, from about the time when he finally settled in the Netherlands, he painted calm, exquisitely drawn groups, posed easily and naturally against shadowy backgrounds and full of an almost aristocratic elegance. Among many fine examples of Terborch’s art were The Letter (1660-1665), The Concert (1657), and Paternal Advice (1654-1655).
Terborch was a teacher of Caspar Netscher. He also influenced some other artists, including Eglon van der Neer.
Gerard ter Borch became known as an influential and pioneering Dutch genre painter. He influenced such fellow Dutch painters as Gabriel Metsu, Gerrit Dou, Eglon van der Neer and Johannes Vermeer.
His works can be found in different museums and galleries. Six of these are at the Hermitage, six at the Berlin Museum, five at the Louvre, four at the Dresden Museum, three at the Getty Center, and two at the Wallace Collection. A pair of portraits is located at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C., highlighted in 2010 by Blake Gopnik.
Gerard ter Borch's painting The Suitor's Visit (1658), in the Andrew W. Mellon Collection, was used on the cover of Marilyn Stokstad's second edition of Art History.
Woman Peeling Apple
Dispatch
Woman Playing the Lute
The Duet: Singer and Theorbo Player
The Knifegrinder's Family
Woman Drinking Wine
The Suitor's Visit
Memorial Portrait of Moses ter Borch
Mother Combing the Hair of Her Child
The Music Party
The Flea-Catcher (Boy with his Dog)
The Visit
Girl in Peasant Costume. Probably Gesina the Painter's Half Sister
Curiosity
Lady at her Toilette
Messenger
The Violinist
The Lute Player
A Woman Spinning
Gallant Conversation (The Paternal Admonition)
Woman Washing Hands
The Reading Lesson
Portrait of a Man Reading
Portrait of Catarina van Leunink
The Letter
The Concert: Singer and Theorbo Player
Card Players
A Young Woman Playing a Theorbo to Two Men
Man Offering a Woman Coins
Music Lesson
The Glass of Lemonade
The Lute Player
A Guard Room Interior With A Soldier Blowing Smoke In The Face Of His Sleeping Companion
Woman at a Mirror
Officer Writing a Letter
The music lesson
Portrait Of A Lady
Drink
The Dancing Couple
The Swearing of the Oath of Ratification of the Treaty of Munster
Woman Writing A Letter
The Concert
The Message
Portrait of a Young Man
Helena van der Schalcke as a Child
A Lady Reading a Letter
Quotes from others about the person
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.: "[Ter Borch] established a new framework for subject matter, taking people into the sanctum of the home."
Ter Borch married Geertruyt Matthijs on February 14, 1654.
