© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Seated at Her Toilet
Page 2 of 9Woman Seated at Her Toilet
Studio of Gerard ter Borch the Younger(Zwolle 1617 – 1681 Deventer)ca. 1657 or lateroil on panel
47 x 35 cm
GB-107

How to cite
Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Woman Seated at Her Toilet” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-woman-seatedat-her-toilet/ (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.

In this placid vignette, a young woman fiddles with a lock of her hair as she

Comparative Figures

stares pensively at her image reflected in the small mirror on the table before
her. Other toilet accessories are scattered across the table: a round silver
box, a candlestick, a brush, a pincushion, and a single strand of pearls. The
woman’s attentive maid stands just behind, patiently pulling a comb throughher mistress’s dark blond curls. In the right foreground is a low table with anivory comb resting at one corner; filling much of the background of the scene
is an ornate chimneypiece.
The subject of a woman at her toilet was one of the most popular themes inDutch genre painting during the second half of the seventeenth century,
charmingly explored on multiple occasions by artists such as Gerrit Dou(1613–75), Gabriel Metsu (1639–67), Frans van Mieris (1635–81), Caspar
Netscher (1639–84), and Johannes Vermeer (1632–75) in addition to Gerard
ter Borch the Younger. While some paintings draw conspicuous parallels

Fig 1. Gerard ter Borch, A Lady
Dressing Her Hair, ca. 1657–58,
oil on panel, 35 x 25 cm, TheWallace Collection, London, no.
235, © The Wallace Collection

with popular imagery and rhetoric that associated women regarding
themselves in a mirror with the sins of pride and lust,[1] others focus more© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Seated at Her Toilet
Page 3 of 9

simply on the pleasurably sensual qualities of these intimate feminine rituals.
Considering Ter Borch’s life-long fascination with the quiet beauty andcherished minutiae of women’s domestic preoccupations, it is no surprisethat depicting women at their toilet became one of his favored themes.
Images of women primping and preening, adjusting their costume, ordressing their hair offered viewers a discreet glimpse of these private rituals.
The ubiquitous presence of a maid—sometimes older, but invariably plain andsoberly dressed—introduced a contrast that subtly accentuated the youthful
beauty and feminine grace of the woman being groomed.
Ter Borch treated the subject of a woman dressing her hair, assisted by hermaid, on at least three occasions. Each time he expressed a slightly different
understanding of the event, underscoring his unique sensitivity to the minuteFig 2. Attributed to Gerard terBorch, The Duet, ca. 1669, oil oncanvas, 82.5 x 72 cm, Musée duLouvre, Paris, inv. 1900, Erich
Lessing / Art Resource, NY

but fascinating variations that can be found in even the most mundane,repetitive activities. Ter Borch first approached the theme in a painting ofabout 1650 or slightly earlier, now known only through copies.[2] The
composition shows a woman seated at her dressing table with a small dog in
her lap. She peers at her reflected image in a mirror supported by a youngboy, as she and her maid coax her long blond locks into some intricate
coiffure. Woman Seated at Her Toilet incorporates most of the sameelements but reverses the orientation of the figures and omits the young boy.
Woman Seated at Her Toilet is most closely related to Ter Borch’s A Lady
Dressing Her Hair, of about 1657–58 in the Wallace Collection in London (fig1). The basic compositional elements are identical in both pictures: a woman

Fig 3. Detail showing painted
monogram and wax seal on
reverse of A Woman Seated atHer Toilet, GB-107

seated at a plush-covered dressing table with her maid standing just behind,and a massive marble chimneypiece in the left background. In Woman
Seated at Her Toilet, the costume of the seated woman has been modified
slightly and a small table was added at the lower right. The figure of the maid
is no longer in profile, but turned three-quarters to the viewer, her head bent
to the task of combing her mistress’s long hair. The composition has been
expanded on all sides, effectively distancing the figures from the picture
plane. By making this small adjustment, the artist of this work replaced thedisarming intimacy of the Wallace Collection picture with a cool detachmentthat supports the changes he made in the figures themselves. Whereas in
the Wallace Collection picture the maid seems to chatter gaily to the woman
seated before her, here she seems more subservient, more distant,engaging less with her mistress and the viewer. Her downturned face masks
her expression, introducing a degree of ambiguity.
Gudlaugsson described Woman Seated at Her Toilet as a relatively late work© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Seated at Her Toilet
Page 4 of 9by Ter Borch, of about 1670,[3] constituting a reprise of a subject that had
occupied him at least a dozen years before. It seems more likely, however,that the picture is a roughly contemporary variation of the Wallace
Collection’s A Lady Dressing Her Hair. The woman’s costume (specificallyher red jacket) and hairstyle are more in keeping with styles of the late1650s; furthermore, the marble chimneypiece appears in other paintings by
Ter Borch of the late 1650s (including fig. 1), but not in any autograph works
from around 1670. Although the elongated proportions of the figures in
Woman Seated at Her Toilet—the slim ovoid heads, narrow shoulders, andattenuated limbs—are seen in a few other genre paintings ascribed to thisperiod, for example The Duet in the Louvre, dated about 1669 (fig 2), they
appear less gracefully integrated here. This weakness, as well as thesimplistic modeling of the draperies and the overly sharp contours of thefigures against the background, suggest that Woman Seated at Her Toilet
was produced by a member of Ter Borch’s studio rather than by the masterhimself.
Woman Seated at Her Toilet is generally in good condition, although the dark
background is somewhat worn and some pigments (notably the dark blue ofthe maid’s apron) appear to have deteriorated. The rather flat appearance of
the woman’s red jacket may result from the loss of the thin glazes typicallyapplied atop the paint layer to shade and model forms. On the back of thepanel is a red wax collection seal, which, though fragmentary, bears animpression of a crenellated tower on a shield borne aloft by two griffins,
motifsbelonging

Netherlands.

[4]

tothearmsoftheNeufvillefamilyintheThere is also a painted insignia incorporating the initials GSI,

which has not yet been identified (fig 3).

- Marjorie E. Wieseman, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Seated at Her Toilet
Page 5 of 9Endnotes

1. See Eric Jan Sluijter, “Een stuck waerin een jufr voor de spiegel van Gerrit Douw,” Antiek 23(1988): 150–61.
2. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:95–96, no. 76;
sale, Brussels, 9 March 1953, no. 93.
3. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:212.
4. See A. C. de Neufville, Histoire généalogique de la maison de Neufville (Amsterdam, 1869),
193ff.

Provenance
Robbert de Neufville, Leiden (his sale, Haak, Leiden, 15 March 1736, no. 9 [for 42 florins]).
Nicolaas Nieuhoff, Amsterdam (his sale, Van der Schey-de Winter-Yver, Amsterdam, 14 April
1777, no. 29 [for 800 florins to Fouquet]).
[M. Antoine-Charles Dulac, Paris (sale, Chariot-Paillet, Paris, 30 November 1778, no. 240 [for1,960 livres to Dubois])].
Jan Jansz Gildemeester, Amsterdam (his sale, Van der Schley, Amsterdam, 11 June 1800,
no. 29 [for 255 florins to B. Kooy]).
Arend van der Werff van Zuidland, Dordrecht (his sale, Versteegh, Dordrecht, 31 July 1811,
no. 111 [for 140 florins to Meulemans for Van der Werff of Haarlem]).
Chevalier Sébastian Érard (1752–1831), Château de la Muette, Passy (his sale, HenryLacoste, Paris, 23 April 1832 [date of sale changed to 7–14 August 1832], no. 154 [for 2,000francs to Henry (bought in)]; sale Érard et al., Christie’s, London, 22 June 1833, no. 9[bought in at £65.2]). [1]G. de Poulton Nicholson, Berlin (his sale, Lepke, Berlin, 8 April 1924, no. 70 [for 20,500marks]). [2][Steinmeyer, Lucerne, 1924; S. Bolton, London, 1925; Böhler and Steinmeyer, New York,1929].
(Sale, Sir George Vernon et al., Puttick & Simpson, London, 27 November 1929, no. 44 [as“Property of a Gentleman” (W. G. Eden); £15 to Cooper (bought in)]).
(Sale, Lord Dewar et al., Puttick & Simpson, London, 28 May 1930, no. 108 [property of W. G.
Eden; £6.60 to Ede (bought in)]).
Hershel V. Jones (1861–1928), Minneapolis; by descent to Mrs. Hershel V. Jones, New York© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Seated at Her Toilet
Page 6 of 9(sale, Sotheby’s Parke-Bernet, New York, 18 April 1940, no. 57; for $1,900 to D. W.
Cooper]).
D. W. Cooper; by descent to Elizabeth C. Dunham (sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 8 October
1993, no. 178A.
Private collection (sale, Christie’s, London, 6 December 2007, no. 55 [Johnny Van Haeften,London, 2007]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Provenance Notes

1. The present painting was among those withdrawn from sale by Érard’s nephew, PierreOrphée Érard, to be offered for sale in London in hopes of achieving a better price; see AnikDevries, “Sébastien Érard, un amateur d’art du début du XIXe siècle et sesconseillers,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 123 (1981): 84.
2. Gudlaugsson (Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. [The Hague, 1959–60],2:212) recorded the painting in the collection of Dr. Wolffenberg, Berlin, in 1924; however, as
Adolf and Gustav Wolffenberg were co-owners of Lepke’s auction house at the time, thisreference may simply indicate that he saw the painting at the auctioneers’ prior to the sale.

Exhibition History
Detroit Institute of Arts, “Ninth Loan Exhibition of Dutch Genre and Landscape Painting,” 16October–10 November 1929, no. 72 (lent by Böhler and Steinmeyer, New York).

ReferencesHoet, Gerard. Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen. 2 vols. The Hague, 1752, 1: 458, no.
9.
Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish andFrench Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 4:123, no. 17, as probably a copy after Ter
Borch.
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: 27, no. 65. 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.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Seated at Her Toilet
Page 7 of 9Von Bode, Wilhelm.

“Kunsthistorische Ausbeute aus dem deutschen Kunsthandel vonHeute.” Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 46, no. 1 (1925): 117–18, fig. 5.
Donath, Adolph. “Der Kunstmarkt 1923/24.” Jahrbuch für Kunstsammler, nos. 4–5 (1925):
103–4, fig. 38.
Valentiner, Wilhelm. R. Ninth Loan Exhibition of Dutch Genre and Landscape Painting. Exh.
cat. Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1929, xvii, no. 72.
Gudlaugsson, Sturla, J. Geraert ter Borch. 2 vols. The Hague, 1959–60, 1:365, fig. 234;
2:142 (under no. 127), 211–14, no. 234.
Ingamells, John. The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Pictures, IV: Dutch and Flemish.
London, 1992, 39.

Versions
Versions and Copies

1. Gerard ter Borch, A Lady at Her Toilet, ca. 1657–58, oil on panel, 35 x 25 cm, WallaceCollection, London, no. 235. Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Worksof 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 Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols.
(Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28), 5:22–23, no. 48; Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:141–42, no. 127.

2. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, oil on panel, 31 x 25 or 53 x 40 cm,
formerly H. Reinhardt Galleries, New York, 1925; sale, Charles Stokvis, Galerie des BeauxArts, Brussels, 17 November 1947, no. 107 (this sale is not noted in Gudlaugsson). Sturla J.
Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:212, no. 234a (as possiblyidentical to 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, 8vols. [London, 1907–27], translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis derWerke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. [Esslingenand Paris, 1907–28], 5:26, no. 60a).

3. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, oil on canvas, 57 x 47 cm, formerly
private collection, Basel, 1957; (possibly) sale, Christies, London, 10 July 1992, no. 142 (asfollower of Ter Borch). Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague,1959–60), 2:213, no. 234a. Composition expanded at left and right sides.

4. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, oil on canvas, 43 x 35.5 cm, sale J.
Witsen, Amsterdam, 16 August 1790, no. 9 (for fl. 41 to Coclers); present whereabouts© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Woman Seated at Her Toilet
Page 8 of 9unknown. 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, 8vols. (London, 1907–27), translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis derWerke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingenand Paris, 1907–28), 5:27, under no. 65; Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols.
(The Hague, 1959–60), 2:213, no. 234b (as possibly identical with one or more of the otherversions listed).

5. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, oil on canvas, 48.5 x 40 cm, formerly
G. Neumans, Paris, 1912. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague,1959–60), 2:213, no. 234c. Hofstede de Groot considered this genuine, but dirty and possiblyoverpainted. Possibly identical to Version 4, 6, or 7.

6. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, monogrammed GTB lower right, oil oncanvas, 46 x 36 cm, sale Mme la Marquise d’Aoust, Lair-Dubreuil and Féral, Paris, 5 June
1924, no. 96 (as attributed to Ter Borch); current whereabouts unknown. Sturla J.
Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:213, no. 234d (possiblyidentical to Version 4, 5, or 7). Seen by Hofstede de Groot and judged genuine, but
completely overpainted.

7. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, oil on canvas, 48.5 x 40 cm, formerly
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, ca. 1940. With modifications to hairstyle and chimneypiece.
Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:213, no. 234e (asworkshop; possibly identical to Version 4, 5, or 6).

8. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, oil on canvas, 76 x 64 cm, sale
Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 1981, no. 99; sale, Koller, Zürich, 3–4 June 1983, no. 5018.
(possibly) 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, 8vols. (London, 1907–27), translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis derWerke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingenand Paris, 1907–28), 5:20, no. 43; Eduard Plietzsch, Gerard ter Borch (Vienna, 1944), 50,
under no. 67 (as variant of the Wallace Collection painting); Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert
ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:213, no. 234f (as workshop), enlarged
composition.

9. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, oil on canvas, 78 x 67 cm, formerly
private collection, Switzerland, 1955. Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (TheHague, 1959–60), 2:213–14, no. 234g, enlarged composition.

10. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, oil on canvas, measurements
unknown, sale D. N. Teengs, Monnikendam, 23 September 1824, no. 11. Cornelis Hofstede
de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of theSeventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith, 8 vols. (London, 1907–27),© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Woman Seated at Her Toilet
Page 9 of 9translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten
höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28), 5:26,no. 61; Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:214, no.
234h (as possibly identical to his no. 234f or 234g, our Versions 8 and 9).

11. After Gerard ter Borch, A Woman Seated at Her Toilet, oil on panel, 53 x 40.5 cm, formerly
Galerie Koller, Zürich, 1966; sale, Moharishuis, Arnhem, 24–29 November 1968, no. 146.

12. After Gerard ter Borch, Woman Dressing Her Hair, with a Maid, support and dimensions
unknown, sale, Zeger Hasebroek, Leiden, 26 April 1763, no. 124 (“Een Dame, die haarPaleert, met haar Dienstmaagd, naar Ter Burg”). Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, Geraert ter Borch, 2vols. (The Hague, 1959–60), 2:212, under no. 234.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained but horizontally oriented rectangular-shaped oak,has bevels along the upper and lower sides only.[1] The panel is unthinned and uncradled and has
no machine tool marks. There is one red wax collection seal, one import stamp, a stencil, threelabels, and a hand-painted cross but no panel maker’s mark.
A light gray-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been built up insuccessive thin layers, light over dark, allowing the darker layers beneath the flesh tones to showthrough. Delicate dots of light add highlights along the figure’s skirt, earrings, and pearl necklace
on the table.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. Theimages and pentimenti indicate minor compositional changes during the paint stage. The fingersof the figure’s proper right hand have been uncurled, the palm has been shifted closer to thefigure, and the elbow has been raised.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2008 and remains in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination only.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection