On loan: Long Loan to the Rijksmuseum (2023 - 2026), Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands This painting records a key moment in European political history: the confirmation of the treaty which formally granted independence to the Dutch nation from Spanish control in 1648. The key figures are the six Dutch and two Spanish delegates, shown in the centre swearing the treaty oath, and ter Borch’s own self portrait – he’s on the left, with a reddish moustache and long fair hair, looking out at us.
It’s also the first known oil painting to depict such a political event in a ‘factual’ way. Before this date, artists tended to glorify such moments, for example casting the protagonists as classical heroes in a fantasy setting. But although ter Borch has arranged the figures artificially so that the most important are clearly visible, they are depicted with lifelike portraits, and we know, from written accounts by eyewitnesses, that many of the details of the hall and its furnishings are accurately represented.
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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