Portrait of a Man

ca. 1653

Gerard ter Borch the Younger(Zwolle 1617 – 1681 Deventer)oil on panel
23.8 x 18 cm
GB-109© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man
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How To CiteRahusen, Henriette. "Portrait of a Man." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr. New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man
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This simple half-length portrait demonstrates Gerard ter Borch theComparative Figures

Younger’s exceptional ability to convey an effective likeness with amodicum of means. The man, perhaps of early middle age, is dressed
plainly in a black costume enlivened only by a simple collar and narrowcuffs of white linen. A black cloak is pulled close around his portly frame,and he clutches a pair of fawn-colored gloves in his left hand.
Portrait of a Man probably dates to about 1653. Together with thePortraitof Jan van Goyen (fig 1) and another portrait of an unidentified sitter (fig2), both of which date to about 1652–53, the Leiden Collection’s image isamong Ter Borch’s earliest half-length portraits in a rectangularformat.[1] All these paintings depict the subject facing three-quarters to theright, with the solid pyramidal bulk of their figures silhouetted against aneutral background. The sitters are remarkably devoid of pretense, andeach regards the viewer in an unusually relaxed and open manner.

Fig 1. Gerard ter Borch, Portraitof Jan van Goyen, ca. 1652–53,
oil on panel, 20 x 16 cm, The
Princely Collections,
Liechtenstein, Vaduz–Vienna,
inv. GE893

Portrait of a Man is painted on a single horizontally grained plank of wood,presumably oak. The edges are not beveled. The panel appears to havebeen trimmed along the left side and possibly also along the top;[2] it may
originally have shared the slightly wider proportions of Ter Borch’sPortraitof Jan van Goyen mentioned above.
At the time the painting was sold in 2000 there were two labels on the backof the panel, one indicating that the painting had at one time been in thecollection of Georges Mieg, and the other providing an old auction
catalogue description with the number “247.” Both labels have since been
removed. The Mieg family was one of the leading industrial families inFig 2. Gerard ter Borch, Portraitof a Man, ca. 1652–53, oil on
panel, 28 x 23 cm, private
collection

Mulhouse, France; in 1800, together with the Dollfus family, they founded
Dollfus-Mieg & Compagnie (DMC), one of the largest European producers
of fabric and embroidery thread. Georges Mieg (1865–1924) was anamateur musician and avid supporter of cultural institutions in Mulhouse.
Both his father, Mathieu (1821–73), and grandfather, Jean-Georges(1788–1864), were collectors, notably of paintings and objects relating to
the history of Mulhouse.[3] On the reverse of the panel is a red wax seal.
Though worn, the impressed forms are not inconsistent with (and probablyrepresent) the arms of the Mieg family.[4]-Henriette Rahusen© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a ManPage 4 of 6Endnotes
1. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:104–5, nos. 93
and 92 respectively. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. et al., Gerard ter Borch (Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts) (Zwolle, 2005), 97–99(Portrait of Jan van Goyen, no. 21) and 100–1 (Portrait of a Man, no. 22); additionally on
Portrait of a Man, see P. C. Sutton, Dutch and Flemish Paintings: The Collection of Willem
Baron van Dedem (London, 2002), 38–41.
2. See the Technical Summary prepared by Annette Rupprecht, June 2012. Viewed from theback, the panel has lighter-colored strips 3 to 5 centimeters wide along the top, left, andbottom edges (suggesting where the panel previously had been masked off), but none along
the right (i. e., the left side of the panel viewed from the front). In addition, the cuts of theupper and left edges of the panel show a raised lip of unpainted wood along the front
surface, suggesting that these edges have been modified.
3. Georges Mieg, “Un inspirateur du Musée Historique, Jean-George Mieg 1788–1864,”
Bulletin du Musée Historique du Mulhouse 44 (1924): 239–56. On Georges Mieg, see L.-G.
Werner, “Georges Mieg (1865–1924),” Bulletin du Musée Historique du Mulhouse 44(1924): 386–88.
4. See N. Ehrsam, Livre d’or (Bürgerbuch) de la ville de Mulhouse , rev. ed. (Mulhouse, 1883),
pl. 111.

Provenance(possibly) Mathieu Mieg (1821–73), Mulhouse; by descent to Georges Mieg (1865–1924),
Mulhouse; his widow, Mme Marie-Valentine Mieg-De Coninck (1875–1963).
Private collection, France; (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 15 December 2000, no. 146 [asattributed to Ter Borch, for 65,000 francs to Kunsthandel P. de Boer B.V., Amsterdam,
2000–6; to Bijl-Van Urk B. V., Alkmaar, 2006]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Exhibition History(Possibly) Mulhouse, Musée Municipal des Beaux-Arts, “Exposition de Peintures des© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man
Page 5 of 6Collections Privées de Mulhouse et de sa Région, XVIe au XIXe siècle.” 23 June–1
September 1959, no. 38, as Portrait d’homme, 26 x 21 cm (the current panel showsevidence of having been trimmed) [lent by Mme Georges Mieg].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, andTheir Contemporaries,” 26 October 2014–4 January 2015; Birmingham Museum of Art, 4February–26 April 2015, no. 4 [lent by the present owner].

References(Possibly) Exposition de Peintures des Collections Privées de Mulhouse et de sa Région,
XVIe au XIX e siècle. Exh. cat. Mulhouse, Musée Municipal des Beaux-Arts. Mulhouse,
1959, no. 38.
Weller, Dennis P. “Portrait of a Man.” In Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, andTheir Contemporaries. Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham
Museum of Art. Raleigh, 2014, 52–55, no. 4.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of horizontally grained but vertically oriented rectangular-shaped
oak, has no bevels but has irregularly cut edges, which suggest the panel dimensions have beenmodified.[1] The panel is unthinned and uncradled and has no machine tool marks. There is one
red wax collection seal and one inscription but no import stamps, stencils, labels or panel
maker’s marks.
A light gray-colored ground has been thinly applied. Drawing a diagonal line from the upper left
corner to the lower right, the right half of the panel contains a distinct pattern of radio-opaqueswirls that do not relate to the present composition.[2] The paint has been built up in successive
thin layers applied thinly and smoothly light over dark through the face and dark over lightthrough the background.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. Theimages and X-radiograph reveal changes in the shape of the contours of the figure’s white collar.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2006 and remains
in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination only. There may benarrow remnants of bevels along the left and lower edges.
2. See X-radiograph.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection