Portrait of a Seated Man

The first of seven paintings by Ter Borch to enter the Museum's collection, this anonymous portrait probably dates from the late 1650s or early 1660s. The patron was presumably one of the artist's numerous clients in and around Deventer. A good number of single male portraits by Ter Borch are known; many, like this one, include a hat resting on a table. To judge from the present figure's placement in the picture field, as compared with that of men in Ter Borch's pendant portraits, this work never had a mate.

[2010; adapted from Liedtke 2007]

Henry G. Marquand, New York (bought in London; 1888–89)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Exhibition of 1888–89," 1888–89, no. 25 (as "Cabinet Portrait").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.

Charles H. Caffin. "Pictures at the Metropolitan Museum." Harper's Monthly Magazine 104 (January 1902), p. 274.

C[ornelis]. Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Ed. Edward G. Hawke. Vol. 5, London, 1913, p. 100, no. 317, as "Portrait of a Gentleman," acquired by Marquand in 1888 in London; mistakenly describes the figure as standing.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 94.

S[turla]. J. Gudlaugsson. Gerard ter Borch. The Hague, 1959–60, vol. 1, p. 307, pl. 152; vol. 2, p. 164, no. 152, notes Hofstede de Groot's erroneous description of the figure as a standing man; dates it to the end of the 1650s.

Walter Liedtke. "Dutch Paintings in America: The Collectors and Their Ideals." Great Dutch Paintings from America. Exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1990, p. 36.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 323, ill.

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. ix, 74–75, no. 16, colorpl. 16, dates it to the late 1650s or early 1660s.

Esmée Quodbach. "Collecting Old Masters for New York: Henry Gurdon Marquand and The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 9 (Winter 2017) [DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2017.9.1.2].