Gerard ter Borch (Zwolle 1617-1681 Deventer)

Throughout his career, Ter Borch demonstrated his interest in capturing military life, having been exposed to its rhythms from early on as a child growing up in a garrison town in the province of Overijssel. In the 1650s, following the end of the Eighty Years' War (1648), the artist took to creating intimate guardroom scenes executed in earth tones and featuring a few figures organized in vertical compositions, of which the present painting is a prime example. While soldiers increasingly found their way into middle-class surroundings in Dutch painting of the period as a result of their shifting roles in peacetime, Ter Borch channeled the rustic atmosphere of earlier genre scenes of this type by depicting a simple, makeshift setting. At home in a rough environment where rubbish litters the floor and a weathered plank resting on a barrel passes for a table, three men have found different ways of passing the time. A portly officer, presumably exhausted from overindulgence in drink and tobacco, has made himself comfortable by unbuttoning his trousers and pulling down his boots before falling into a deep slumber. One of his companions entertains himself by blowing smoke into his face to rouse him under the distracted gaze of a ruddy soldier lighting his pipe.

Likely originating in the work of Jacob Duck, the theme of a soldier being tickled awake was treated once more by Ter Borch in a composition dated to around 1656-1657 and now in the Taft Museum, Cincinnati (S.J. Gudlaugsson, op. cit., 1960, no. 121), although in that instance the culprit takes the form of an attractive young woman. While such amusing scenes were intended to delight viewers, they were probably also meant as cautionary reminders of the importance of maintaining military vigilance. Indeed, despite the peace with Spain, the Netherlands remained vulnerable in the 1650s, especially along the German border, where forces spreading Counter-Reformation doctrine needed to be kept in check.

An autograph copy of this painting, minus details such as the clay pipe resting on the plank, is now housed in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne (ibid., no. 94 II, ill. p. 253; H. Gerson believed it was a copy). Containing various pentimenti, the present painting was first recognized as the original version by Wolfgang Stechow (loc. cit., p. 12), a conclusion supported by Gudlaugsson (loc. cit., 1960), who identified three copies of the composition, as well as by Plietzsch (loc. cit.) in 1961.