Herderin op een landweg - Gesina ter Borch

A delicate seventeenth-century watercolour and ink illustration from the personal album of Dutch artist Gesina ter Borch, featuring a pastoral scene.

This delicate work by Gesina ter Borch originates from her personal album, a collection that offers a rare glimpse into the private artistic pursuits of a seventeenth-century Dutch woman. Ter Borch, a member of a prominent family of painters in Zwolle, produced these pages for her own amusement and for the entertainment of her social circle. The composition combines fine calligraphy with a charming watercolour illustration, reflecting the period interest in pastoral themes and courtly poetry.

The image depicts a young shepherdess standing beside a tree, holding a crook, while a distant figure tends to a small flock of sheep along a path. The artist employs a light, airy touch with her brush, using muted washes of yellow, green, and brown to define the figure and the surrounding environment. The inclusion of text above the illustration suggests a narrative or lyrical context, common in the albums of the era where visual art and literature were closely intertwined. The figure of the shepherdess is rendered with a sense of gentle grace, characteristic of the amateur yet highly skilled output of ter Borch.

Unlike the large-scale oil paintings produced by her brother, Gerard ter Borch, this work demonstrates the intimate scale of domestic art. The paper shows signs of age, which adds to the historical character of the piece. The combination of the handwritten verses and the pastoral scene provides a window into the cultural life of the Dutch elite during the mid-seventeenth century. This print captures the original nuances of the ink lines and the soft application of colour, preserving the aesthetic of the original album page for a modern setting.