Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier
Gerard ter Borch the Younger(Zwolle 1617 – 1681 Deventer)ca. 1655
oil on canvas
78.1 x 76.2 cm
GB-104© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-lady-tickling-asleeping-soldier/ (archived May 2020).
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 narrative
occurs.

Fast asleep in his chair, legs casually crossed and arms wrapped tightly overComparative Figures

his belly, Gerard ter Borch the Younger’s soldier enjoys a respite from his
military responsibilities. His plumed hat has been tossed haphazardly on thefloor, and his pistol is wrapped in a cloth and lies on the table beside him.
This peaceful interlude is about to end, however, as a trumpeter has arrived
with a message, and the woman moves to wake the officer by tickling him
with a piece of straw. The trumpeter scratches his head, seemingly
perplexed and perhaps concerned that his urgent message has not been met
with the decisive response it requires.
The inherently paradoxical motif of the sleeping soldier has a long history inthe visual arts. Sleep can render a fierce and vigilant warrior slack and

Fig 1. Jacob Duck, Soldiers
Arming Themselves, mid-1630s,
oil on panel, 43 x 57 cm, The
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The
Ude Memorial Fund and Gift of
Bruce B. Dayton, inv. 88.2

defenseless, but it can also reduce a soldier to an object of ridicule,emblematic of sloth and dereliction of duty, particularly when his slumber has
resulted from overindulgence in alcohol or tobacco.[1] One piquant variationon the theme involved lightly tickling the sleeper to the amusement of his
companions. The low comic nature of tickled sleep dovetailed nicely with thetypically ribald humor of tavern and guardroom scenes, in which companions
anticipate, with a smirk, the sleeper’s unpredictable and ungoverned
reactions to a playful tickle often accompanied by a quick groping of thegenitals. Ter Borch may have been inspired in his choice of subject by thework of Pieter Codde (1599–1678) and Willem Duyster (1598/99–1635) in
Amsterdam, and by the Utrecht painter Jacob Duck (1600–67), who regularly
included sleeping soldiers in his guardroom scenes and also explored theFig 2. Jacob Ochtervelt, The
Sleeping Soldier, ca. 1660–63, oil
on panel, 46 x 37.7 cm,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier
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theme of both male and female sleepers being tickled awake (fig 1).[2] Laterin the century (and possibly influenced by Ter Borch’s paintings), Jacob
Ochtervelt (1634/35–1708) made a minor specialization in scenes centering

Manchester City Art Gallery(Assheton Bennett Collection), inv.
1979.483, © Manchester City
Galleries

on sleeping soldiers being subjected to such teasing (fig 2).[3]Ter Borch’s Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier is an unusually decorous
iteration of the theme: settled in his chair, the portly soldier is gently coaxed
awake with a light touch from the young woman. The straw-wrapped bottleon the table beside him suggests that his stupor might have been induced bydrink; his inert corpulence, with his gun is swaddled in a cloth, casts serious
doubt on his ability to quickly leap into action. There is playfulness in the
woman’s chosen method of waking the soldier, considering that thetrumpeter could surely accomplish the task with brisk if brutal efficiency.
Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier is closely related to Ter Borch’s Sleeping
Soldier in the Taft Museum in Cincinnati, which has been dated about
1656–57, a year or two later than the present work (fig 3).[4] The differences

Fig 3. Gerard ter Borch, Sleeping
Soldier, ca. 1656–57, oil oncanvas, 63.5 x 55 cm, The Taft
Museum, Cincinnati, inv. no.
1931.398

between the two paintings are subtle but instructive, as they demonstrateconcisely the artist’s transformation from a painter of simple guardrooms
and domestic scenes (for example, GB-101) into an accomplished purveyor
of supremely elegant high-life interiors. Though the figure of the sleeping
soldier is much the same in the two pictures (possibly suggesting the use ofa single figure drawing for both), the pose, costume and accessories of boththe messenger and the woman have been considerably modified. In thepresent picture, the figures are densely clustered in the center of thecomposition, but in the Taft painting they are more loosely arranged.
Furthermore, in the Leiden Collection picture, Ter Borch eliminated extra
space at the bottom of the composition, thereby bringing the figures closer tothe picture plane and enhancing the immediacy of the narrative. He alsoelaborated on certain details in the present work—the feathers adorning thesleeping soldier’s hat on the floor at right, and the arrangement of objects on
the table—to produce a more overtly luxurious effect.
But the changes to the woman are literally and figuratively the most
revealing. Whereas the girl in the present painting wears her jak modestly
fastened, and shrouds her head with a kerchief (a similar outfit is seen in The
Message Refused in Munich, of about 1655–58[5]), the young woman in the

Fig 4. W. Chevalier after Gerard
Terburg, “The Trumpeter”
engraving from Allan
Cunningham, The Cabinet Galleryof Pictures by the First Masters of
the English and Foreign
Schools (London, G. and W. Nicol[etc.], 1836), Yale Center for
British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Taft picture displays a beguiling dishabille. Rather than falling in simple
vertical folds, her white satin gown pools around her feet, emphasizing thegleaming fabric. By altering her pose so that she reaches to tickle her dozing
companion with her left (rather than her right) hand, Ter Borch eliminatedFig 5. Detail of the clay pipes in W.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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that physical and visual barrier, opening the way for flirtatious engagement

Chevalier’s engraving “TheTrumpeter”

with both the soldier within the painting and the keen viewer without.
Similarly, by deleting the messenger’s enormous hat, shifting the position of
his trumpet, and adjusting his pose to accentuate the sweeping line of his
figure, which terminates in one elegantly turned-out toe, Ter Borch
transformed the figure from an awkward emissary to a bemused coconspirator.
Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier is in a relatively good state of preservation,although dark areas, such as the sleeping soldier’s hair, are somewhat
abraded.[6] Although the painting has been in the past attributed to Caspar
Netscher (ca. 1639–84),[7] and was acquired as such by the Leiden
Collection, details of the still life and of the costumes of the soldier and themessenger are sensitively handled and characteristic of Ter Borch’s hand.
When Nancy Krieg restored the painting in 2005, the decision was made(based on William Chevalier’s engraving (fig 4) to add the thin strand of hay
to the woman’s right hand, which had presumably been removed
inadvertently during an earlier restoration.
The existence of several virtually identical versions of the composition makes
it difficult to clarify the early provenance of Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier,particularly as the abbreviated nature of most early sale catalogue
descriptions render them ambiguous at best.[8] William Chevalier’s
engraving, published in 1836, most closely resembles the present version incompositional details, including the fragments of clay pipe stems on the floor(fig 5), as well as in its broader proportions, making it possible to identify thispainting as the one then in the collection of Richard Artis. Version 2 (seeVersions section), which is signed jointly by Ter Borch and Netscher, is very
close to the present painting, but with a few notable differences: there are
more complex folds in the woman’s white satin skirt, a planked wooden
floor, and more slimly proportioned figures, all typical of the sort ofadjustments Netscher made when adapting his master’s work.[9]- Marjorie E. Wieseman, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes

1. On the theme of sleep in Dutch genre painting, see Nanette Salomon, “Dreamers, Idlers, andOther Dozers: Aspects of Sleep in Dutch Art” (PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York
University, 1984). Specifically on sleeping soldiers in the work of Ter Borch and others, seeDavid Kunzle, From Criminal to Courtier: The Soldier in Netherlandish Art, 1550–1672(Leiden, 2002), 603–4.
2. See Nanette Salomon, Jacob Duck and the Gentrification of Dutch Genre Painting(Doornspijk, 1998), especially nos. 31, 73, 78A-C, 91 and 92. Ter Borch painted at least twoother scenes incorporating sleeping soldiers; see Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2
vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:98, 158–61, nos. 79 and 146.
3. Susan Donohue Kuretsky, The Paintings of Jacob Ochtervelt,1634–1682: With Catalog
Raisonné (Montclair, 1979), especially nos. 11, 14, 15, 99, 100, and 100A.
4. On this painting see Walter Liedtke, in The Taft Museum: Its History and Collections, ed.
Edward J. Sullivan, 2 vols. (New York, 1995), 1: 170–71.
5. Oil on panel, 46 x 46.5 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, inv. 206. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert
ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:137–38, no. 124.
6. See the examination report prepared by Jevon Thistlewood, 27 April 2012; additional
information on the painting’s restoration is provided in a research memo prepared by Lara
Yeager-Crasselt, December 2011. These reports are kept at The Leiden Collection.
7. The painting was attributed to Netscher in Nanette Salomon, “Dreamers, Idlers, and Other
Dozers: Aspects of Sleep in Dutch Art” (PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University,1984), and in the sales catalogues of 2001 and 2004 (see Provenance).
8. In addition to the paintings listed in the Versions section, paintings of similar description
appeared in the following sales, which may or may not be identical to the present painting or
one of the versions listed:—Sale, Belville, Christie’s, London, 13–14 June 1825, no. 71 (“An officer asleep; his wife
waking him, as a trumpeter awaits his orders,” bought in for £70.7).
—Sale, Stanley, London, 22 April 1830, no. 71 (“A Trumpeter, and a lady waking an officer,”for £55.13).
—Sale, H. Williams, Christie’s, London, 2 July 1836, no. 111 (“The Trumpeter: a lady in acrimson corset is tickling the face of a sleeping soldier in a cuirass; the trumpeter standingby”; for £19.19 to Talbot).
9. See Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting(Doornspijk, 2002), 53–55 and 169–70, no. 5; and eadem, “The Craeyvanger Portraits in© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Context—Shedding Light on Caspar Netscher’s Early Career,” Oud Holland 127 (2014):
31–47.

ProvenanceSale, [Ramsay Richard] Reinagle, Christie’s, London, 30 June 1827, no. 64 (“The Wife of an
Officer waking him, and a Trumpeter waiting for Orders; highly finished,” for £89.50 toRichard Artis).
Richard Artis (1782–1860), London.
(Possibly) Mr. Brown, London, 1830.[1](Possibly sale, Phillips, London, 18–20 July 1835, no. 128 [for £64.10]); Ellis (possibly Wynn
Ellis [1790–1875]), London (his sale, Christie’s, London, 26 May 1836, no. 102 [bought in at
61 Gns.]). [2]
Lt. Col. Francis Edwin Salvin Bowlby, M. C. (b. 1904), Gilston Park, Hertford, by 1933 (hissale, Sotheby’s, London, 27 March 1963, no. 91 [for £5,000 to Goyen]). [3][Alfred Brod, London, 1963–65].
Private collection.
(Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 25 January 2001, no. 204, as by Caspar Netscher, unsold; sale,
Sotheby’s, New York, 5 June 2002, no. 40, as by Caspar Netscher, bought in).
[Johnny van Haeften, Ltd., London, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004, as by Caspar Netscher.

Provenance Notes

1. John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish andFrench Painters, 9 vols. (London, 1829–42), 4:131, no. 43; Gudlaugsson (Sturla J.
Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch , 2 vols. [The Hague, 1959–60], 2:134, no.121a) identifies
this with our Version 2.
2. Both sales identify the painting as that described by Smith as his no. 43: John Smith, A
Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, 9
vols. (London, 1829–42), 4:131, no. 43.
3. According to a handwritten annotation in the copy of Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue
Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century
Based on the Work of John Smith, 8 vols. (London, 1907–27), translated from
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier
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Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28), held at the Library of
the National Gallery, London (5:31).

Exhibition History
London, Alfred Brod Gallery, “Annual Autumn Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Paintings ofthe 17th Century,” 17 October–16 November 1963, no. 91 [lent by Alfred Brod Gallery].
Düsseldorf, Galerie Alfred Brod, “Fünfzig Gemälde alter Meister: Ausstellung im
Künstlerverein Malkasten,” 19–31 October 1963 [lent by Alfred Brod Gallery].
Oxford,Ashmolean

Museum,

on

loan

with

the

permanentcollection,

January

2011–August 2015 [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 present
owner].
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 thepresent owner].

References
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish andFrench Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 4: 131, no. 43 (as “in the possession of Mr.
Brown, 1830”).
Cunningham, Allan. Cabinet Gallery of Pictures by the First Masters of English and Foreign
Schools. 2 vols. London, 1836, 2: 43–45, no. 17.
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: 31–32, no. 77. 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 biographisches© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier
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Material. 2 vols. The Hague, 1959–60, 2: 133–34, no. 121a.
Alfred Brod Gallery. Annual Autumn Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Paintings of the 17th
Century. Exh. cat. London, Alfred Brod Gallery. London, 1963, no. 6.
Alfred Brod Gallery. Fünfzig Gemälde alter Meister: Ausstellung im Künstlerverein Malkasten
Düsseldorf. Exh. cat. London, Alfred Brod Gallery. Düsseldorf, 1965, 80–83.
Salomon, Nanette. “Dreamers, Idlers, and Other Dozers: Aspects of Sleep in Dutch Art.” PhD
diss. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1984, 105–7, no. 106, as by Caspar
Netscher.
Kunzle,David.

From

Criminal

toCourtier:

The

Soldierin

NetherlandishArt,

1550–1672. Leiden, 2002, 604.
Wieseman, Marjorie E. Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting.
Doornspijk, 2002, 170, no. 5a.
Wieseman, Marjorie E. “The Craeyvanger Portraits in Context: shedding light on Caspar
Netscher’s early career.” Oud Holland 127, no. 1 (2014): 39, 47, n. 25.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier.” In Rembrandt and His Time:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 126; 184, no. 53.
Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
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, 132–33.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier.” In The Age of Rembrandt andVermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 212–13; 247,
no. 73. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State
Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.

Versions
Engraved

1. Chevalier after Gerard ter Borch, Lady Tickling a Sleeping Soldier, 1834, engraving(published in A. Cunningham, Cabinet Gallery of Pictures by the First Masters of English andForeign Schools [London, 1836], 2:87, no. 17). Described as being in the collection of Mr.
Artis. The proportions of the print are closer to this painting than to Version 2.

Versions and Copies© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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1. Gerard ter Borch, Sleeping Soldier, ca. 1656–57, oil on canvas, 63.5 x 55 cm, The Taft
Museum, Cincinnati, inv. no. 1931.398.

2. Gerard ter Borch and Caspar Netscher, Sleeping Soldier, ca. 1658, oil on panel, 68.5 x 58
cm, formerly Louis and Mildred Kaplan Collection, New York, 1950. Jointly signed by Ter
Borch and Netscher on the letter held by the woman.

3. After Gerard ter Borch, Sleeping Soldier, oil on canvas, 71 x 60 cm, formerly Friedrich, Basel.
As possibly by Netscher. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague,
1959–60), 2:134–35, no. 121d; Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late
Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), 170, no. 5c.

4. After Gerard ter Borch, Sleeping Soldier, oil on canvas, 70.4 x 60.2 cm, sale, Christie’s, New
York, 3 June 1998, no. 94 (as “Manner of Gerard ter Borch”).

5. Workshop of Gerard ter Borch, A Letter to a Sleeping Soldier, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 60.4 cm,
Kadriorg Art Museum (Art Museum of Estonia), Tallinn, inv. no. VM 12. Sturla J.
Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:134, no. 121c, as copy withvariations of Cincinnati painting; Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late
Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), 170, no. 5b.

Technical Summary
The support is a single piece of medium-weight, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed,
which has been lined. Cusping along all four edges indicates the support’s dimensions have notbeen significantly altered. There are no wax collection seals, stencils, import stamps, or labels
along the lining or stretcher reverse.
A ground has been thinly and evenly applied. Although there is no indication of the ground color,the painting has the distinct feel of one executed on a dark-colored ground. The paint has been
applied with no noticeable brushstrokes, but in certain fabrics, short hatched strokes have beenused to depict texture.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 720 nanometers, althoughcompositional lines may be located along the door along the right side of the composition. No
compositional changes are noted in the images, in the X-radiograph, or as pentimenti.
The painting was cleaned, lined, and restored in 2005 and remains in a good state ofpreservation.[1]Technical Summary Endnotes© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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1. Entry based on 2012 examination report by Jevon Thistlewood, paintings conservator,
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection