An Officer Writing a Letter

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.