Self-portrait

Ter Borch's self-portrait of 1668 shows him at the height of his career, when he was one of the most successful Dutch painters outside Amsterdam, established in Deventer as the city's pre-eminent portraitist. The self-portrait documents a painter of sixty—confident, prosperous, and socially elevated far beyond the artisan status of most of his contemporaries—presenting himself with the quiet authority of a man who has achieved exceptional success through sustained excellence. His ability to translate the psychological penetration of his genre paintings into self-portraiture gives this image an unusual quality of honest self-examination. The self-portrait was itself an assertion of status—claiming the tradition of artist self-representation established by Rembrandt and Velázquez—while its lack of ostentation maintains the characteristic Ter Borch restraint.

The self-portrait presents the artist with the same quiet dignity he brought to his patrician portrait commissions. His characteristic restraint and precise technique create an image of professional authority and personal composure.