Staande officier, van achteren c. 1654 - 1658

Gesina ter Borch made this drawing of an officer, from behind, with pen in gray and watercolor, as part of a friendship album. These albums were immensely popular in the Netherlands during the 17th century. Usually owned by women, they served a similar function to modern social media, as a tool for forging and maintaining social bonds between the owner and her friends, family, and acquaintances. In this case, the album combines poetry with images, including this detailed, if diminutive, portrait of a military man, complete with dog. Looking at this drawing, we can consider the ambiguous position of women artists at the time, and how institutions such as family, rather than the academy, played a key role in their artistic training. Ter Borch here engages with the military culture of the Dutch Republic, but from a domestic, and distinctly feminine, perspective. To find out more about the social world of Dutch art, consult historical surveys and gender studies. Art is always embedded in social and institutional contexts.