Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 5, 1913.djvu/20

4 GERARD TER BORCH SECT. himself in details ; many figures in his genre-pieces occur a^in and agam either copied exactly or repeated with slight variations.* The fo d, -of th costumes in his portraits are often copied with such precision,- that one may almost conclude that the painter kept pictures of dresses ready m stock, to which he added the heads and hands as required. The article of furniture in his interiors, the chimney-pieces, beds, tables and chairs, are very often the same. c This habit of repeating himself, which is astonishing in the case of an artist of such importance, makes it very difficult to know what attitude to take up in regard to the many old replicas of Ter Borch s pictures. Un the one hand, it must be taken as proved that the painter copied his own work much more often than most of his equally distinguished con- temporaries. On the other hand, many of these replicas are not of equal merit, and there is usually one example such as the " Paternal Advice at Amsterdam which soVar surpasses all the others that one can scarcely regard those others as repetitions from Ter Borch's own hand. In numerous cases the question is not yet ripe for solution and still needs a very careful inquiry. PUPILS AND IMITATORS OF GERARD TER BORCH Among our painter's kinsfolk, his father GERARD TER BORCH the elder (1584-1662), his cousin JAN TER BORCH of Buren, his half-brothers MOSES (1645-1667) and HARMAN (i638-before 1677), and his half-sister GESINA (1633-1690), also displayed artistic powers. Of the works of the elder Gerard there have only been preserved some drawings and engravings which reveal the style of an older period of art and have no sort of relationship to the works of his son. The only authentic example of Jan ter Borch, who was a pupil of Paulus Moreelse at Utrecht, is in the Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam ; it is "The Drawing Lesson," with two life-sized figures by candlelight, and is treated in the manner of the Utrecht painters of candlelight scenes. By Moses ter Borch we have a fairly large number of drawings, usually in black and white chalk studies of heads from his family circle, with the light and shade strongly marked. There are in the Rijksmuseum two similar heads, painted in oils, which in style correspond exactly to his drawings ; this resemblance of style, and the fact that the studies were in the possession of the Ter Borch family, suffice to show that they are the work of the dilettante, who died young. His sister Gesina was also a dilettante of somewhat modest talent. Her artistic productions are preserved in the Amsterdam Print- room. No oil-paintings from her hand are known. Weak pictures in the style of her brother are often ascribed to her, but this is mere conjecture. 1 Compare, for instance, Not. 186 and 187 ; the lady standing in this picture with the lady in 45. '74, >d >70 } Nos. 162 and 163 ; the lady in Nos. iz8 and 132 ; Nos. 134 and 140 ; a Nos. 331 and 362, 221 and 451, 384 and 393. No., and so on.