An Officer dictating a Letter

Ter Borch began in the 1630s with rowdy guardroom scenes, and by the mid-1650s he was turning the same soldiers into something quieter and harder to read. An officer in a black hat dictates, a soldier in a breastplate and helmet writes, and a third man in a striking blue jerkin looks straight out at us. His spurs, sword and the bugle on his back mark him as a trumpeter, the cavalryman who also carried messages, so he is presumably waiting for the letter. At first Ter Borch gave away what kind of letter it was. He painted an ace of hearts on the floor, a plain hint of romance, and then covered it over. Nearly 400 years on, that paint has thinned and the card shows through again, just in front of the spaniel's hind leg.