A Woman Spinning

Oil on canvas
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

by Gerard Terborch (b.1617 in Zwolle – d. 1681 in Deventer), Dutch subject painter, was born in the province of Overijssel, the Netherlands.

Ter Borch's fame rests mainly upon the genre pictures he made after the middle of the 17th century which help define the subjects and pictorial schemes used by many artists of his generation and those who worked later. What sets him apart is his mastery of subtle narration which can charge every episode with subdued tension. His rendering of simple themes, such as a woman spinning, shows the same knowledge of people as his more ambitious pieces.