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The Gallant Conversation (Paternal Admonition)
Gerard ter Borch · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Gerard ter Borch (1617–1681)
- Date
- c. 1654
- Dimensions
- 71 x 73 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Gallant Conversation shows a young woman in a magnificent silver satin dress standing with her back to us, while a seated officer speaks to her and an older woman sips wine beside him, in a room with a large curtained bed.
A closer look
For centuries the painting was called 'Paternal Admonition', interpreted as a father scolding his daughter. Today it is generally understood as a more ambiguous scene, possibly a man offering money to a young woman in a brothel, with the older woman as a procuress. Ter Borch leaves the meaning open, focusing on the psychological tension and above all on the dazzling satin of the dress, whose folds and reflections he painted with unrivalled skill. The woman's turned back hides her reaction, which keeps the scene mysterious.
History of the painting
In the 18th century the painting belonged to Dutch collectors, among them Willem Lormier in The Hague. In 1809 it entered the national collection with the purchase of the Van Heteren Gevers cabinet for the new Royal Museum founded by Louis Napoleon, King of Holland, the forerunner of the Rijksmuseum. The same year Goethe, who knew the composition from an engraving, described it in his novel Elective Affinities.