Notes

Pieter de Graeff  (1638-1707) was a member of one of the most influential and prosperous families in Amsterdam at the time. He was Lord of Zuid Polsbroek.

Between 1664 and 1672 he was the president of the V.O.C. In 1662 he became an important governor for the city of Amsterdam (member of the Vroedschap).

The identification of the sitter is confirmed in conjunction with a 1663 portrait of

Pieter de Graeff by Caspar Netscher in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

His brother Jacob was also portrayed by Ter Borch, Gudlaugsson, no. 265;

In the painting we see him depicted against a maritime background. The expression of

the richness and costliness of his clothes, in which Rer Borch was un-rivalled, exemplifies his status of heir to one of the most wealthy and powerful Amsterdam families.

Gerard Ter Borch received his initial artistic training by his father, who bares the same name. Afterwards he became an apprentice of Pieter Molijn, a highly regarded painter and draftsman in Haarlem. After many travels to England, Germany, Italy, Spain and France, he returned to his homeland where he worked in his birthplace Zwolle and Deventer. At the end of the 1660s and the beginning of the 1670s, Gerard began to spend more time in Amsterdam, were he executed many portraits of the wealthy and well to do families of Amsterdam, the sitters family, de Graeff, being one of them. The sitter is confirmed to be Pieter de Graeff (1638-1707), the eldest child of the family, in conjunction with a 1663 portrait by Caspar Netscher at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The expression of the richness and costliness of his clothes, in which ter Borch was un-rivalled, exemplifies his status of heir to one of the most wealthy and powerful Amsterdam families.