It might seem extraordinarily fussy and frilly to us today but, in the early 1660s when this portrait was made, such showy garb was considered – by some at least – to be the height of sophisticated dressing, a look inspired by the latest fashions in Paris and employing the most expensive fabrics and tailoring.
Our model wears a black silk coat over a skimpy half-unbuttoned waistcoat known as an ‘innocent’. His voluminous white shirt, with its lace-trimmed collar and cuffs, billows out over a pair of voluminous breeches decorated with ruffles and looped ribbons. Below this, ruffles around his shins were created by a pair of wide stockings (canons) which have been folded over garters tied just below the knee. The elongated, square-toed, high-heeled shoes which he proudly points towards us are bedecked with more ribbons, while, to complete the look, he wears a distinctive hat known as a sykerboort (sugar cone). This was in fashion from about 1660 until just after this portrait was made.
Unfortunately we don’t know who the sitter is, though it seems likely that ter Borch painted a pendant portrait of his wife at the same time (now in the Cleveland Museum of Art). She stands in a virtually identical setting at the other end of the same velvet-covered table, with a red, gold tasselled chair behind her. Most likely her husband was a wealthy burgher from the Dutch town of Deventer where ter Borch had settled in 1654, after travelling and painting in many parts of Europe. He had introduced this type of full-length, small-scale portrait where the figure is set against a neutral, simple background in the 1640s. This example, combining flamboyant dress with the rich reds of the velvet furnishings, is one of his most striking and distinctive.
The bearing of the man himself is hard to decode, however. Some viewers have detected a steady gaze and dignified attitude, others find him anxious and overwhelmed by his costume. Perhaps ter Borch wanted to imply a certain amount of ambivalence. Clearly, however, he is a man of status, upright and conscious of demonstrating his social and financial status.
And he was apparently not afraid to alienate some of his more conservative contemporaries. Such ostentatious dressing was not universally approved of in the Netherlands at the time. Though the sitter is careful to respect the formal convention of wearing only black and white, stricter Calvinists (who followed Calvinism, a branch of Protestantism popular in the Low Countries) would certainly have raised their eyebrows at what one contemporary writer referred to as ‘immoderately loose and long garments… redolent of over-abundance and profligacy’.
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