Though this wasn’t an uncommon subject, ter Borch’s treatment is singularly realistic—almost photographic, one might say.Works such as these invite a comparison between photography and painting. Painting requires not only tools and medium, but the artist’s direction with every stroke as well, to determine the painting as he sees fit. Photography, in contrast, involves the choice of subject and setting, plus a mechanical recording of light. It does not involve an artist—in the strict sense of the word—who truly determines every facet of the final product.
For these reasons, photography is less called a fine art than painting. In fact, photographs have been considered poorer ways to record a likeness. For instance, although a plethora of good-quality photographs existed of St. Therese of Lisieux, her superior ordered a portrait painted (posthumously) for greater resemblance. A portrait, opined the superior, reflected not only St. Therese’s physical appearance, but her sanctity and personality.
Perhaps, in Lady at her Toilette, small details were excluded or exaggerated by the artist, for the sake of the whole work, every stroke of which he included deliberately.
