Musical Company
Gerard ter Borch the Younger(Zwolle 1617 – 1681 Deventer)ca. 1642–44
oil on panel
33 x 41.2 cm
signed in dark paint, lower right corner, alongstool: “GTBorch” (“T” and “G” inmonogram)
GB-105© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Musical Company
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How to cite
Surh, Dominique. “Musical Company” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-musical-company/ (archived May2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrativeoccurs.

Situated within a middle-class domestic interior, a trio of musicians is

Comparative Figures

engaged in an intimate recital. The ensemble features a young woman
playing the virginals, an early keyboard instrument known for its sweet, puretone.[1] She is flanked by two male instrumentalists: an elegantly dressedyoung gentleman sits across from her and plays a viola da gamba, whilebehind the virginals is a slightly older man who looks toward the others as heactively bows his viola da braccia. The features of the room—including thefireplace and canopy bed in the background, the woolen bedcovers tossedcasually over the bench, and the scraps of paper and broken pipe on thefloor—indicate that this is a common setting for a wide range of domestic
pastimes and amusements.
In Musical Company, an important transitional work within Gerard ter Borch

Fig 1. Gerard ter Borch, Woman at
Her Dressing Table, ca. 1648–49,
oil on circular panel, 20 cm
diameter, formerly private
collection, Francethe Younger’s oeuvre, the artist evokes the immediacy of a moment takenfrom life. Drawing inspiration from his own family in Zwolle, TerBorch modeled the seated figure at the virginals after his younger half-sister
Gesina (1631–90), who was a frequent model in his paintings. Gesina’s
distinctive profile and unconventional beauty appear in as many as twenty
paintings throughout Ter Borch’s career.[2] Here he has portrayed her at thetender age of about twelve or thirteen. Although Woman at Her Dressing
Table, from ca. 1648–49 and formerly in a private collection in Paris (fig 1),[3]

Fig 2. Infrared reflectogram of A
Musical Company (GB-105)

is sometimes regarded as Ter Borch’s earliest depiction of Gesina in agenre painting, the present work predates it by several years and represents
the fair-haired half-sister’s pictorial debut.
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The hypothesis that Ter Borch painted this scene directly from life issupported by the existence of a black-chalk underdrawing (fig 2). The
character of the simple, free-flowing lines and abbreviated figures, whichcorrespond so closely with the final painting, suggests it was made quickly
on the spot as an initial sketch.[4] Ter Borch diverged only slightly from theoriginal drawing in the final position of Gesina’s profile and of the violinist’s
hat, and in the leaning angle of the kitchen maid’s pose. The fireplace andcanopy bed in the background are also faithfully executed, while an extra
hat, omitted in the final work, can be spotted on the bench next to the bed.
Visible on the inside of the virginals’ lid is the inscription “Musica…,” the firstword of Musica Donum Dei (“Music is the Gift of God”), an inscription often

Fig 3. Gerard ter Borch, The
Suitor’s Visit, c. 1658, oil oncanvas, 80 x 75 cm, National
Gallery of Art, Washington,
Andrew W. Mellon Collection

found on such instruments. On the panel next to the woman’s lap are theletters “So…,” which almost certainly allude to another frequently foundinscription, Soli Deo Gloria (“Glory to God Alone”). The easy rapport of themusicians suggests that they play together on a regular basis and arefamiliar with the music. As was common in such ensembles at that time, they
have no written musical notations before them and play from memory,
following each other through visual and audible cues such as the speed of abow or the intake of breath. Ter Borch explicitly conveys the auditory
qualities of music by portraying the viola da gamba player pulling his bow on
an intoned string while the woman rolls out a full chord on the virginal,
parting her lips as if to allude to the sound of a vocal melody.
The players are fully absorbed in their music and oblivious to the entrance ofthe kitchen maid, who pauses to rest her heavy basket of wood. Ter Borch

Fig 4. Gerard ter Borch, The Music
Party, ca. 1675, oil on oak panel,
58.1 x 47.3 cm, Cincinnati Art
Museum, Bequest of Mary M.
Emery, inv. no. 1927.421

contrasts the higher engagement of their musical harmonies with the implicit
clatter of her menial household task. To this end, he uses dramatic
tenebroso lighting, which selectively illuminates the ensemble while leaving
the maid obscured in shadow.
The emotional rapport between the gentleman playing the viola da gamba
and the young woman at the virginals connects the theme of music to that oflove. Ter Borch guides our attention to their elusive psychological exchangeby means of a vibrant red tablecloth and light reflections that sweep acrossthe folds of the girl’s satin dress and over the smooth surface of the viola dagamba. The girl’s shaded eyes and steady gaze, directed at the male figure
so fully engrossed in his playing, alludes to deeper affections of the heart.
Although the theme of music making was a well-established metaphor forlove and harmony, Ter Borch imparts an amorous overtone throughsuggestive nuances rather than through explicit narrative detail.[6] The© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Musical Company
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decidedly private and introspective mood of the present work thus differs
radically from the jovial musical companies popular in Haarlem andAmsterdam that Ter Borch would have encountered in the work of his older
contemporaries, such as Dirck Hals (1591–1656), Jan Miense Molenaer (c.
1610–68), Pieter Codde (1599–1678), and Anthonie Palamedesz (1601–73).
Musical Company offers a new direction in this genre and contains the seedsof an idiomatic approach that Ter Borch would develop subsequently in his
fully mature work.[7]Musical Company likely dates to about 1642–44, relatively early in Ter
Borch’s career. He probably painted it after returning from his voyages
abroad and before settling in Amsterdam, with trips to Zwolle to visit hisfamily.[8] The work bears considerable stylistic resemblance to his Card
Playing Soldiers before an Ancient Ruin in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin,which Gudlaugsson dates to ca. 1643.[9] The painting is close in conception
to the artist’s earliest signed and dated work from 1635, also in Berlin, The
Consultation, particularly in the dramatic use of light and carefully executedreflections.[10]The painting introduces a number of features that would become hallmarksof Ter Borch’s mature style of the 1650s and 1660s, including his
extraordinary ability to portray the alluring visual effects of fabric—here
foreshadowed in the play of light across the crinkled black satin of the young
girl’s dress—and his masterful depictions of genteel encounters between thesexes. The theme of love and attraction under the guise of music wouldbecome an enduring favorite. As demonstrated in works such as The
Suitor’s Visit in Washington (fig 3), from ca. 1658, and The Music Party inCincinnati, from ca. 1668/70 (fig 4), Ter Borch would continue to explore thesocial rituals and power dynamics of courtship while treating the engagementof music with nuanced psychological inflection.

- Dominique Surh, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Musical Company
Page 5 of 8Endnotes

1. Edward Kottlick, A History of the Harpsichord (Bloomington, 2003), 127ff. On the theme ofmusic and love, see The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Music and Painting in the Golden Age(Exh. cat. The Hague, Kunsthandel Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder; Antwerp, HessenhuisMuseum) (Zwolle, 1994), 43ff, 125.
2. Allison McNeil Kettering, “Ter Borch’s Ladies in Satin,” Art History 16 (1993): 95–124, also
published in Wayne Franits, Looking at Seventeenth Century Dutch Art, Realism
Reconsidered (Cambridge, 1997), 98–115, 222–28; Allison McNeil Kettering, Drawings fromthe Ter Borch Studio Estate, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1988).
3. Illustrated in Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., ed., Gerard ter Borch (Exh. cat. Washington D.C.,
National Gallery of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts) (Zwolle, 2004), 84, under no. 17, fig. 1; seealso Walter Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2 vols. (New York,2007), 1:63, 64, n. 7.
4. A similar underdrawing, visible especially in the head of the female figure, was found throughinfrared reflectography in another of the artist’s music-making scenes from ca. 1668: AWoman Playing the Theorbo-Lute and a Cavalier, in New York. See Walter Liedtke, DutchPaintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2 vols. (New York, 2007), 1: 70–74.
5. See Edrward Kottlick, A History of the Harpsichord (Bloomington, 2003), 127ff; Peter Fischer,Music in Painting of the Low Countries in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Amsterdam, 1972),61ff.
6. On the theme of music and love, see Madga Kyrova, “Music in Seventeenth-Century DutchPainting,” in The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Music and Painting in the Golden Age (Exh. cat.
The Hague, Kunsthandel Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder; Antwerp, Hessenhuis Museum) (Zwolle,1994), 41ff; A. P. Mirimonde, “Les sujets musicaux chez Vermeer de Delft,” Gazette desBeaux-Arts 57 (1961): 29–52.
7. See, for example, works such as Anthonie Palamedesz, Party Scene with Music, mid-1630s,
oil on panel, 63 x 89 cm, Wallraf Richartz Museum, Cologne, no. 1058; or Pieter Codde,Cavaliers and Ladies, 1633, oil on panel, 54 x 68 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. no. SKA-4844; and, also by Codde, Dancing Party, 163[9?], oil on panel, 50 x 89 cm, private
collection. On the latter, see Edwin Buijsen, “Dancing Party,” in The Hoogsteder Exhibition ofMusic and Painting in the Golden Age (Exh. cat. The Hague, Kunsthandel Hoogsteder &Hoogsteder; Antwerp, Hessenhuis Museum) (Zwolle, 1994), 174–77, no. 12.
8. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:257, no. C85,
catalogued the painting as a lost work known only through documents, until it came to light in1987 at public auction. Allison McNeil Kettering dates the painting to ca. 1642–44, while Otto
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Musical Company
Page 6 of 8Naumann suggests a slightly earlier date (see correspondence, on file).
9. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:257, no. 25.
10. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., ed., Gerard ter Borch (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery ofArt; Detroit Institute of Arts) (New Haven and London, 2004), 47–49, no. 2.

Provenance
C. E. E. Baron Collot d’Escury (his sale, Leeuwarden, 17 October 1831, no. 4).
Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–90), Margam Castle, Port Talbot, Wales; and bydescent (Sotheby’s, London, 10 December 1986, no. 65).
Saul Steinberg (1939–2012), New York [Richard L. Feigen, New York, by 2002 until 2006].
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Exhibition History
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, The Price Tower Arts Center, “Music’s Power: Great European
Paintings on Musical Themes,” 28 May–10 July 2002, no. 2 [lent by Richard L. Feigen].
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in theAge of Vermeer,” 25 June–16 October 2011; Miyagi Museum of Art, 27 October–12
December 2011; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, 23 December 2011–14 March 2012, no.
6 [lent by the present owner].
Dallas Museum of Art, “Vermeer Suite: Music in 17th-Century Dutch Paintings,” 15January–21 August 2016 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden
Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by the© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Musical Company
Page 7 of 8present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May
2019 [lent by the present owner].

References
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch
Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 5: 55–56, no. 151. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Gudlaugsson, Sturla J. Katalog der Gemälde Gerard ter Borchs sowie biographischesMaterial. 2 vols. The Hague, 1959–60, 2: 257, no. C 85.
Surh, Dominique N. “A Musical Company.” In Human Connections in the Age of Vermeer.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. and Danielle H.A.C. Lokin, 48-50, no. 6. Exh. cat. Kyoto,Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art. London, 2011.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Musical Company.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 128–29; 185, no. 54. Translated by LiYing. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Wang, Jia. “Dutch Painting in Golden Age.” In Journal of National Museum of China 169, no.
8 (2017): 38.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 142–43.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Musical Company.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 210–11; 247, no. 72.
Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museumof Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt,Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and theMusée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 30. Exh. cat. Abu
Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French andArabic.]
Blanc, Jan. “Being Modern, Being Dutch: The Seventeenth-Century Invention of the GoldenAge.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Musical Company
Page 8 of 8Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 42.
Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also publishedin French and Arabic.]
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch GoldenAge. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. AbuDhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 164–5, no. 83. [Exhibition catalogue also publishedin French and Arabic.]

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of horizontally grained, rectangular, wedge-shaped Baltic oak derived
from a tree felled after 1630, has an earliest use date of 1638.[1] The unthinned and uncradledpanel has bevels along all four sides. There are machine tool marks, two labels, and two chalkinscriptions but no wax collection seals, import stamps, stencils or panel maker’s marks along thepanel reverse.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The image was constructed extremely
thinly and smoothly, the thinnest areas are through the central figure’s black skirt, sleeve andface.
The X-radiograph image is extremely thin. Only a few areas of the composition are faintly radioopaque: the cellist’s proper right wrist cuff and proper right lower leg, the highlight along thecello’s proper right edge, and the central figure’s white, triangular shawl. Neither the faces nor
the white shirt collars of the remaining figures are visible.
Infrared images captured at 780–1700 nanometers reveal a detailed, sketchy line underdrawing
throughout the composition.[2] The images also reveal a compositional change to the maid along
the right, who originally stood more vertically, and an underdrawn hat on the bench to her left,
which was not executed in the paint stage.
The painting is signed in dark paint along the lower right corner along the stool but is not dated. It
is inscribed in dark paint along the lid and front panel of the virginals.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2005 and is in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on Peter Klein’s 2008 dendrochronology report.
2. Longer wavelength infrared images captured with an InGaAs camera by Shawn Digney-Peer,
paintings conservator, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection