TERBORCH, Gerard
(b. 1617, Zwolle, d. 1681, Deventer)

Portrait of Willem Marienburg II

1660-62
Oil on canvas, 81 x 65 cm
Národní Galerie, Prague

In 1654, Gerard Terborch moved to Deventer, where he created a market for his portraits among the upper class, with which he was associated both through his family and through political connections. The Marienburg family belonged to Deventer's ruling class. Willem Marienburg I and his son Willem II each held the office of burgomaster for a time. In the 1660s Terborch was commissioned to portray both generations with their respective wives as two pendant pairs. The oval portraits of Willem I (1590-1648) and his wife Geertruida Assink (1602-1679) are now in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, while the portraits of Willem II (1634-1711) and his wife (and niece) Geertruid Marienburg (1645-1722) are in Prague.

The pendants of Willem II and his wife exhibit the typical features of Terborch's elegant portrait style, which he cultivated in the 1660s, and which set his work apart from the established portrait types otherwise prevalent in the Netherl ands.