Margaretha van Haexbergen (1614–1676)

Margaretha van Haexbergen, painted around 1666, is the companion portrait to that of Burgomaster Jan van Duren—painted by ter Borch as paired likenesses of husband and wife, a standard convention in Dutch Golden Age portraiture. 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 female companion portrait employs ter Borch's characteristic attention to costume and fabric, with the sitter's dress rendered with the silvery precision that distinguishes his textile painting. The restrained composition conveys dignified composure.