Biography
Ter Borch specialised in rendering scenes from every day life, a type that flourished in seventeenth-century Holland. He concentrated on quiet middle class interiors with one, two or three finely dressed figures. He also painted small-scale individual and group portraits. Ter Borch worked in Amsterdam and Haarlem, but primarily in the provincial city of Deventer. He was employed by the Spanish envoy and produced a group portrait commemorating the Peace of Munster 1648 (National Gallery, London) that ended the eighty year war between Spain and the Dutch Provinces.
Glossary terms
A French term that denotes different types of paintings, such as landscape, portrait or still life. The phrase ‘genre painting’ is used specifically to describe works depicting everyday scenes.