Gerhard van Suchtelen
Gerard ter Borch the Younger·c. 1666
Historical Context
This portrait of Gerhard van Suchtelen by Gerard ter Borch the Younger, painted around 1666, is the companion piece to the portrait of Maria van Suchtelen in the same collection, together forming a pendant portrait pair typical of Dutch bourgeois practice. Gerhard van Suchtelen was a prosperous Deventer merchant, and his portrait asserts his standing through the same vocabulary ter Borch used for his wife: costly dress, composed bearing, and the painter's extraordinary capacity to render material luxury. Pendant portraits served both the practical function of recording a married couple for their descendants and the social function of demonstrating wealth and respectability. Ter Borch's pair portraits are among the finest examples of this common Dutch genre because they manage to convey individuality and relationship within the strict constraints of the format.
Technical Analysis
The composition mirrors the Maria van Suchtelen portrait in format and scale, ensuring visual coherence as a pendant pair. Ter Borch renders the sitter's dark suit with the same meticulousness applied to his wife's satin dress, though masculine dress is by nature less visually spectacular. The face achieves psychological presence within the formal constraints.
Provenance
E.H. Fahey,[1] London, in 1882. William Frederick Barton Massey Mainwaring [1845-1907], London, in 1884. Sir George Donaldson [1845-1925]; (sale, London, 1906); William A. Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art. [1] This is perhaps Edward Henry Fahey (1844-1907), a British artist best known as a watercolorist.
