Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady from 1679 by Gerard ter Borch is one of the Dutch Golden Age master's refined portraits of the prosperous burgher class. Ter Borch was renowned for his ability to render satin and silk fabrics with unmatched verisimilitude, making his portraits prized records of Dutch fashion. Ter Borch's extraordinary ability to render silk, satin, and velvet with a tactile reality unsurpassed in Dutch Golden Age painting made him the supreme painter of the Dutch upper middle class, his small elegant panels providing the definitive image of prosperous seventeenth-century society.

The portrait demonstrates ter Borch's legendary skill in rendering fabric textures, with the sitter's costume painted with the luminous, tactile quality that distinguished his technique.