The Gallant Conversation
The Gallant Conversation | |
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Artist | Gerard ter Borch |
Year | c.1654 |
Medium | Oil-on-canvas |
Dimensions | 71 cm × 73 cm (28 in × 28+3⁄4 in) |
Location | Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
The Gallant Conversation is an
Description
The painting shows a man talking to a young woman. The woman is dressed in an exquisite silver satin gown which immediately draws the viewer's attention to her as the focus of the scene, while the man is in military dress and holds a finely decorated hat on his lap. The man appears to be addressing the young woman with a gesturing hand and slightly parted lips. The female figure seated between them and next to the man looks down and sips from a wine glass, seemingly uninterested in the ongoing conversation. To the side of the girl there is a table with a burning candle, mirror, powder puff, combs and a trailing ribbon. The setting is simply designed, but the furnishings suggest a level of feminine elegance that befits the two female figures. Behind the man's chair, a scruffy dog can be seen, and to the rear of the picture there is a large bed.[4]
The shimmering satin dress stands out like a strong highlight against the dark earth tones of the rest of the picture and draws the viewer's attention. Ter Borch also gives evidence that the scene takes place in her boudoir - a mirror, powder puff and combs on a table to her left identify it as a woman's dressing table. The proximity of these objects to the standing woman presents the space as her domain.[5]
Gerard ter Borch has depicted the silvery shimmering satin dress of his protagonist in a deceptively real way. With the artfully folded, shiny fabric, it forms the center of the painting and, in its visual and tactile fascination, creates a charming interplay with the rear view of the mysterious wearer.[6]
Interpretation
During the 19th and early 20th centuries viewers believed the scene showed the father of the girl addressing her on the subject of some misdemeanour, while her mother sat patiently beside him, sipping a glass of wine. There were several problems with this interpretation though, and later appraisals focused on the interaction between the man and the girl as potential lovers rather than as father and daughter. The figure formerly identified as the father, who is clearly a soldier, and had appeared too young to be the father of the girl and the husband of the elderly woman, fitted more easily in the role of suitor. Both a formal situation, in which the man is discussing betrothal to the attentive girl, and a transaction in a brothel have been suggested as the subject. The details in the painting are ambiguous enough for Ter Borch to have left it to the viewer to decide which of these scenes was being portrayed.[7]
Ter Borch made a number of copies of the work, and when a smaller version held in the
Copies
The picture seems to have been immediately popular. Ter Borch himself made copies, and there are at least 24 known other versions by other artists. It was also featured in
References
- ^ "Gerard ter Borch - Artists - Rijksstudio". Rijksmuseum. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ "Galante Konversation". Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ Angela K. Ho, Creating distinctions in Dutch genre painting: repetition and invention, Amsterdam University Press, 2017, ISBN 978-90-485-3294-0
- ^ Adrienne Laskier Martín, An Erotic Philology of Golden Age Spain, Vanderbilt University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8265-1578-0
- ^ Adrienne Laskier Martín, An Erotic Philology of Golden Age Spain, Vanderbilt University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8265-1578-0
- ^ Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, "Gerard ter Borch: Die galante Konversation", Retrieved on 30 July 2020 (German)
- ^ Angela K. Ho, Creating distinctions in Dutch genre painting: repetition and invention, Amsterdam University Press, 2017, ISBN 978-90-485-3294-0
- ^ Henning Bock, Masterworks of the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin: with a history of the collection", Picture Gallery State Museums in Berlin, Abrams, New York 1986, ISBN 0-8109-1438-7, p. 238
- ^ Angela K. Ho, Creating distinctions in Dutch genre painting: repetition and invention, Amsterdam University Press, 2017, ISBN 978-90-485-3294-0
- ^ Adrienne Laskier Martín, An Erotic Philology of Golden Age Spain, Vanderbilt University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8265-1578-0
External links
- Marleen Dominicus-van Soest (2003). Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: The Masterpieces. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
- "The Gallant Conversation". Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
- "Gerard Ter Borch" (PDF). National Gallery of Art, Washington. 2004. Retrieved 11 April 2019.