Portrait of Aletta Pancras (1649-1707). Wife of François de Vicq

Ter Borch's portrait of Aletta Pancras, wife of François de Vicq, from around 1670 belongs to the mature phase of his portrait practice, when he was the established portraitist of Deventer's ruling class and Amsterdam's patrician elite. The De Vicq family occupied senior positions in Amsterdam's civic administration, and these companion portraits served the institutional as well as personal function of asserting family dignity and civic standing. Ter Borch's female portraits of this period combine the psychological directness of his genre paintings with the formal requirements of commissioned portraiture, giving his sitters a quality of specific individual presence within the conventions of Dutch civic portraiture. The rich fabric rendering—a direct descendant of his celebrated silk satin technique—gives the portrait its characteristic material luxury.

The portrait demonstrates ter Borch's exceptional skill in rendering rich fabrics—the sitter's costume is painted with the same meticulous attention to surface and light that characterizes his genre paintings. The restrained palette and careful facial modeling create an image of patrician composure.