# An Officer Writing a Letter [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [TERBORCH, Gerard]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on oak panel, 41 x 28 cm ## Commentary An officer set against a dark undefined background, stands on the left, looking down on a young man opposite him, who is seated with his legs apart at a simple low table writing a letter, and leaning forward in deep concentration. In Dutch seventeenth-century art it was usually the women who were represented in the act of writing letters, associated with love and courtship. Terborch depictions of officers writing or receiving letters is without precedent. Earlier scenes with officers and soldiers were set in guardrooms. Dirck Hals, Jan Miense Molenaer, Willem Duyster and Pieter Codde focused on the disruptive characters of soldiers as they drank, gambled, quarrelled and assaulted civilians. ## Related artworks - [A Concert]() - [A Lady Reading a Letter]() - [A Woman Spinning]() - [A Young Woman Playing a Theorbo to Two Men]() - [Boy Ridding his Dog of Fleas]() - [Burgomaster Jan van Duren]() - [Card-Players]() - [Curiosity]() - [Helena van der Schalcke as a Child]() - [Lady at her Toilette]() - [Lady Reading a Letter \(detail\)]() - [Man Offering a Woman Coins]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()