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Your galleryPortrait of a Woman
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- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Look at the white satin skirt where the light catches its folds, then compare it with the duller black silk of her overgown and the red velvet of the chair.
Gerard ter Borch, who pioneered small portraits showing the whole figure, sets this unknown woman alone in a bare room with only a red-covered table and chair. The Cleveland Museum of Art points to his trademark white satin, made to shine with tiny flicks of the brush and touches of paint wiped away. Its pair, a portrait of a man, is in the National Gallery, London.
oil on canvas · Framed: 87.5 x 77 x 7 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Dutch Golden Age
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Portrait of a Woman
- Artist
- Gerard ter Borch (Dutch, 1617–1681)
- Date
- c. 1665
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 87.5 x 77 x 7 cm (34 7/16 x 30 5/16 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 63.3 x 52.7 cm (24 15/16 x 20 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Artist’s life 1617–1681
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.