At
Haarlem, where he lived for a while, he worked in Frans Hals' studio,
and then he settled down at Deventer, a few miles south of Zwolle,
married, and became in time Burgomaster of the town. He died at
Deventer in 1681. Zwolle has none of his pictures, and does not
appear to value his memory. Nor does Deventer. How Terburg looked
as Burgomaster of Deventer is seen in his portrait of himself
in the Mauritshuis at The Hague. It was not often that the great
Dutch painters rose to civic eminence. Rembrandt became a bankrupt,
Frans Hals was on the rates, Jan Steen drank all his earnings. Of all
Terburg's great contemporaries Gerard Dou seems to have had most sense
of prosperity and position; but his interests were wholly in his art.
Terburg is not the only famous name at Zwolle. It was at the monastery
on the Agneteberg, three miles away, that the author of _The Imitation
of Christ_ lived for more than sixty years and wrote his deathless
book.
I roamed through Zwolle's streets for some time. It is a bright town,
with a more European air than many in Holland, agreeable drives and
gardens, where (as at Groningen) were once fortifications, and a very
fine old gateway called the Saxenpoort, with four towers and five
spires and very pretty window shutters in white and blue.
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