Portrait of a bearded gentleman, half-length

Although not included in Sturla Gudlaugsson’s 1959 catalogue of Gerard ter Borch’s paintings, a note on the reverse of a photograph in the RKD Research Files dated 6 August 1970 notes his opinion that ‘to judge from the photograph the attribution seems convincing’. It is possible that Gudlaugsson was not aware of the picture until that year, when it re-emerged with the dealer Alfred Brod. The attribution to ter Borch has more recently been endorsed by Dr. Arthur K. Wheelock, who notes that the modelling of the face is similar to the portraits the artist made of participants at the Treaty of Münster in 1648.

We are grateful to Dr. Arthur K. Wheelock for endorsing the attribution to Gerard ter Borch on the basis of photographs.