The Rejected Letter

Love letters were in fashion in the Dutch Republic of the 1650s. A French handbook of model letters by Jean Puget de la Serre went through at least 30 editions between 1643 and 1664, and in 1651 it appeared in Dutch, offering readers ready phrasing for every kind of correspondence, love letters above all. In most Dutch paintings of the time a letter is being written, brought or read. Ter Borch's panel, painted sometime around 1655 to 1658, shows one being turned down. A man holds out the letter, and the young woman in front of him declines to take it. The museum points to how we can tell her refusal is a virtuous one. On the table beside her stand a washbowl and a jug, a brush and a comb, and for viewers of the time such things meant cleanliness, and with it purity.