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Portrait of a Man
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Portrait of a Man
Gerard ter Borch the Younger(Zwolle 1617 – 1681 Deventer)ca. 1653
oil on panel
23.8 x 18 cm
GB-109How to cite
Rahusen, Henriette. “Portrait of a Man” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived December2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

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This simple half-length portrait demonstrates Gerard ter Borch the Younger’s

Comparative Figures

exceptional ability to convey an effective likeness with a modicum of means. Theman, perhaps of early middle age, is dressed plainly in a black costume
enlivened only by a simple collar and narrow cuffs of white linen. A black cloak ispulled 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 the Portrait of Jan vanGoyen (fig 1) and another portrait of an unidentified sitter (fig 2), both of which date
to about 1652–53, The Leiden Collection’s image is among Ter Borch’s earliest halflength portraits in a rectangular format.[1] All these paintings depict the subject facing
three-quarters to the right, with the solid pyramidal bulk of their figures silhouetted
against a neutral background. The sitters are remarkably devoid of pretense, and eachregards the viewer in an unusually relaxed and open manner.

Fig 1. Gerard ter Borch, Portrait ofJan van Goyen, ca. 1652–53, oil onpanel, 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 have been trimmed
along the left side and possibly also along the top;[2] it may originally have shared theslightly wider proportions of Ter Borch’s Portrait of Jan van Goyen mentioned above.
At the time the painting was sold in 2000 there were two labels on the back of thepanel, one indicating that the painting had at one time been in the collection ofGeorges Mieg, and the other providing an old auction catalogue description with thenumber “247.” Both labels have since been removed. The Mieg family was one of theleading industrial families in 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 an amateur musician and avid supporter of cultural institutions in Mulhouse. BothFig 2. Gerard ter Borch, Portrait of aMan, ca. 1652–53, oil on panel, 28 x
23 cm, private collection

his father, Mathieu (1821–73), and grandfather, Jean-Georges (1788–1864), werecollectors, 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 notinconsistent with (and probably represent) the arms of the Mieg family.[4]- Henriette Rahusen, 2017© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Man
Page 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 Peter C. Sutton, Dutch andFlemish 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 the back, thepanel has lighter-colored strips 3 to 5 centimeters wide along the top, left, and bottom edges (suggesting
where the panel previously had been masked off), but none along the right (i. e., the left side of thepanel viewed from the front). In addition, the cuts of the upper 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 MuséeHistorique du Mulhouse 44 (1924): 239–56. On Georges Mieg, see Léonard-Georges Werner, “GeorgesMieg (1865–1924),” Bulletin du Musée Historique du Mulhouse 44 (1924): 386–88.
4. See Nicolas 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 [as attributed 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 Collections
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 shows evidence of having been trimmed) [lent byMme Georges Mieg].
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Portrait of a Man
Page 5 of 6Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their
Contemporaries,” 26 October 2014–4 January 2015; Birmingham Museum of Art, 4 February–26 April
2015, no. 4 [lent by the present owner].

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

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of horizontally grained but vertically oriented rectangular-shaped oak, has nobevels but has irregularly cut edges, which suggest the panel dimensions have been modified.[1] The panel isunthinned 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 tothe lower right, the right half of the panel contains a distinct pattern of radio-opaque swirls that do not relate
to the present composition.[2] The paint has been built up in successive thin layers applied thinly andsmoothly light over dark through the face and dark over light through the background.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. The images and Xradiograph 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 goodstate of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination only. There may be narrow remnants ofbevels along the left and lower edges.
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Portrait of a Man
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2. See X-radiograph.

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