Lot 188: Head of a girl, possibly Sara ter Borch, wearing a necklace

Gerard ter Borch I (Zwolle 1582/83-1662) Head of a girl, possibly Sara ter Borch, wearing a necklace red chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, brown ink framing lines 3 3/8 x 2½ in. (8.7 x 6.5 cm.)

8.7 x 6.5 cm.

A. McNeil Kettering, Drawings from the Ter Borch Studio Estate, Gravenhage, 1988, I, p. 80, under GSr108, II, p. 819 (Appendix I, no. 1), illustrated p. 814 (as 'Gerard I Terborch').

Eugène Rodrigues Henriques (1853-1928) (L. 897); Drouot, Paris, 20 March 1909, lot 137.

Alison McNeil Kettering noted that this was one of several portrait drawings of similar dimensions which show the artist's and his wife Geesken van Voerst's daughters, dating from the early 1630s (op. cit., I, nos. GSr 107-108; II, p. 750, folio 139, and appendix, p. 814, nos. 1-3; see also Christie's, New York, 29 January 2009, lot 44). Anna was born in 1622, Sara in 1624, and Gesina in 1631. The present drawing is especially close to a sheet in the Rijksmuseum showing a girl wearing the same necklace (op. cit., I, no. GSr 108, p. 80; Fig. 1) and McNeil Kettering suggested that both drawings could represent Sara. Fig. 1. Gerard ter Borch I, Head of a girl, possibly Sara ter Borch, wearing a necklace, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.