Gerard ter Borch

Possibly Johan van Slijpesteijn, Utrecht (in his inventory of 26 September 1693, no. 70);
Anonymous sale, The Hague, 24 April 1737, lot 20, for 35,5 Florins;
Prince de Conti, Paris;
His sale, Paris, Boileau, 15 March 1779, lot 180;
R. Mège de Malmont, Paris;
With Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris, 1901 (Catalogue of 100 Paintings, no. 50);
Adolphe Schloss, Paris;
Looted during the Second World War, and subsequently returned to the Schloss heirs;
Adolphe Schloss sale, Paris, Charpentier, 25 June 1949, lot 60, for 680,000 francs;
Dr. Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam, by 1952.

Laren, 1959, no. 79, reproduced plate 42;
Münster, Landesmuseum, Gerard ter Borch, 1974, no. 17;
Washington, National Gallery of Art; & Detroit, Institute of Arts, Gerard ter Borch, 1 November 2004 - 30 January 2005, & 27 February - 22 May 2005, no. 15.

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. V, London 1913, p. 73, no. 198, and p. 39 no. 98a;
Wetzlar cat., 1952, p. 21, no. 93, reproduced;
S.J. Gudlaugsson, Gerard Ter Borch, vol. I, The Hague 1959, reproduced p. 231, no. 69;
S. J. Gudlaugsson, Katalog der Gemälde Gerard Ter Borch, vol. II, The Hague 1960, pp. 89-90, cat. no. 69, p. 90;
P. Pieper (ed.) Gerard Ter Borch, exhibition catalogue, Münster 1975, p. 90, no. 17, reproduced p. 91;
Voorkeuren, 1985, p. 20, reproduced p. 21;
A.K. Wheelock, Gerard ter Borch, exhibition catalogue, New Haven & London 2004, pp. 78-80, no. 15, reproduced.

ENGRAVED:
In mezzotint, by Johannes van Somer (Amsterdam c. 1645-after 1699 London?), in reverse (Hollstein 56), and in the same sense (Hollstein 57), possibly in 1676.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a small oak panel, cradled probably a century ago with edge strips all round also covering the inner back edges over any bevelling at top and base behind. There has been one brief old crack from the centre of the top edge and another slightly longer down the left edge from the top, but the panel is clearly perfectly stable. There is one tiny recent nick in the background at the upper the right corner, and two tiny surface scratches crossing by the chin of the boy on the right. There is a mature old varnish which is still quite translucent, and a few minute, old, slightly darkened superficial retouchings along the grain in a few areas: tiny vertical lines down the grain of the wood in the originally thinner more transparent flesh paint of the face on the left and the farther hands and the sleeve of the boy, all apparently superfluous. Also one or two tiny darkened touches in the lower central background, and in one faintly thinner place by the lower table leg. However there is scarcely any sign of wear at all, even in the rich depths of the background brushwork, with just a little thinness in the central red cap. The main figure is magnificently intact otherwise, and the entire painting is exceptionally undamaged and unworn. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This arresting picture is generally dated to 1648 or shortly after.  The model for the young man with long dark hair was a member of the Spanish delegation to the Treaty of Münster in that year, and is identifiable as the sixth figure from the right in the back row of Ter Borch's famous painting of the Swearing of the Oath of Ratification of the Treaty of Münster in The National Gallery, London (see fig. 1). 

That the appearance of the young man with long dark hair seems to imbue this painting with an air of melancholy has often been remarked on.  Writing in the catalogue of the Washington Ter Borch exhibition, Arthur Wheelock summed this up thus:  'No painting in Ter Borch's oeuvre conveys with such overwheleming power the emotion of loneliness and despair.  As a young swarthy male, all dressed up with nowhere to go, absentmindedly fingers grains of snuff in the silver snuffbox in his hand, he gazes blankly ahead with unfocused eyes.  A concerned friend, seated across the rustic table, looks toward him sympathetically but with mouth closed, as though unsure of what to say to alleviate his emotional burden.  Behind the pair stands another young friend, who suggestively grasps the neck of a straw-covered wine bottle firmly in his hand as he looks out at the viewer with a telling expression.'  We are naturally tempted to conclude that the young man's melancholic ennui is due to him being a long way from home, in a doubtless alien place, while momentous events - the final ending of the long war of independence of The Netherlands from Spain - are taking place around him.

Ter Borch painted this picture either in Münster prior to the signing of the Treaty on 15th May 1648, or possibly in Brussels, whence he travelled subsequently with the count of Peñaranda's delegation.  It was perhaps under the influence of Flemish painters that Ter Borch started to paint tavern interiors such as this one, although he treats the subject in a quite different way to his Flemish counterparts - pictures like this are closer perhaps to those of Brouwer, who had been dead for over a decade, than to contemporaries such as Teniers.

It has been suggested that a related painting (with Johnny van Haeften), depicting a cavalier encouraging a maid to drink wine, is a pendant, and that they may depict Smell and Taste from a set of five senses of which four panels of similar size are currently known, or that between them they incorporate all five senses (see fig. 2).¹   Whether this is the case or not, Ter Borch has clearly used the same Spaniard as his model in both paintings.

Gudlaugsson lists five possible copies, of which at least two may be the same work.

1.  Oil on panel, indistinctly signed lower left, 26.5 by 20 cm..  With Johnny van Haeften, London.  The other paintings of similar dimensions that may have comprised a set of senses include: The Card Players (Sight) in the Oskar Reinhart collection, Winterthur, and The Old Violin Player (Hearing) in The Hermitage, St Petersburg.