Rijksmuseum

Portrait of Moses ter Borch as a Two-Year-Old

Date

in or after 1667

Medium

canvas, oil paint (paint)

Institution

Rijksmuseum

Moses ter Borch died in the Second Anglo-Dutch War at the age of 22. Shortly thereafter, his older sister Gesina painted a portrait of him as a two-year-old as a memento and tribute. We see him beating a drum, surrounded by toy weapons that allude to the virtues of courage and patriotism. The message seems to be that he was fearless, even as a toddler.

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