The Dutch painter Gerard Ter Borch (1617-1681) is noted for small portraits and genre scenes of great refinement.

Gerard Ter Borch was born in Zwolle. His first teacher was his father, Gerard Ter Borch the Elder, who in his youth had spent some years in Rome and returned with drawings he had made as well as some he had collected in Italy. The son precociously revealed his gifts as a draftsman, as shown in his drawing of a man on horseback (1625).

Ter Borch traveled widely. In 1634 he was in Haarlem, in 1635 in London, in 1640 probably in Rome. A visit to Spain is reflected in reminiscences of Diego Velázquez in the style and psychological penetration of Ter Borch's portraits. His famous portrait Helena van der Schalke as a Child (ca. 1644) calls to mind Velázquez's Infantas; the placement of the figure in palpable yet undefined space...