Woman Drinking Wine, c.1656/57 Gerard Ter Borch (1617-1681)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Gerard Ter Borch also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Woman Drinking Wine is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

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The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

The color harmonies in this painting immediately draw the eye, shifting subtly between the soft, muted tones of the woman’s garments and the warm presence of the red chair. The carefully balanced interplay between cool grays and restrained yellows, underscored by the glow of the wooden table, underscores a gentle tension. It is a palette that quietly invites the viewer into the private world unfolding here, suggesting both intimacy and an undercurrent of unease. The artist’s use of subdued light, washing the woman’s face in a delicate glow, heightens the sense of a contained drama—something about to be written or confessed.

The technique is equally telling. The gentle brushwork gives volume to the folds of her dress and a realistic sheen to the ceramic jug in her hand. Ter Borch’s attention to textiles is famously meticulous, and the viewer can almost feel the soft give of the fabric and the cool glaze of the jug. Even the paper on the table, poised for writing, has a carefully observed texture that contrasts with the polished wooden surface beneath. In this restrained setting, the painter’s precision becomes a silent narrative tool, every detail establishing both setting and mood.

Compositionally, the painter places the woman at a slight angle, guiding the eye from her absorbed gaze to the quill and ink on the table. The large canopy bed behind her looms like a moral presence, its heavy drapes an understated reminder of social expectations. By positioning the bed so prominently, Ter Borch signals the broader 17th-century attitudes toward intimacy, especially for women who dared to drink and write of personal matters. The viewer’s attention shifts seamlessly from the quiet introspection in her face to the unseen tensions suggested by that imposing structure in the background.

Looking more closely at the scenario, we see a young woman pausing, glass in one hand, jug in the other. Before her rests paper waiting to be filled—perhaps with a confession of love, or a plea for understanding. Drinking in this time was often seen as improper for women, further charged by the proximity of a bed that symbolizes potential transgression. Yet the painting conveys a hush: a private moment of self-reflection, where the act of writing remains suspended. This silent drama, poised between inner emotion and societal caution, is at the heart of the work’s resonance and leaves us pondering her next move.