Herbert's "Gerard Terborch: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"

The "Fatherly Admonition" in Berlin's Dahlem Museum is my favorite Terborch, one might say the fullest Terborch at the peak of his painterly potentiality: the enclosed fragment of an elegant room (its box conception of space brings to mind the dramas of Ibsen and nineteenth century naturalists). Against deep browns the screen of a bed with a baldachin and a curtain falling perpendicularly like a backdrop with a matte red shade. The same color, only gradually more intensive and saturated with light, is repeated in the coverlet on the table and upholstery of a chair. Three persons are in the room. . . .
"Fatherly (Paternal) Admonition"
By Gerard Terborch
[From Wikigallery.org]




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