This is one of eight stamps printed on the same sheet and honoring the 100th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union. Letter-writing themes were selected from major pieces of art.

Gerard ter Borch specialized in painting miniature portraits in the 1640s, and later established a new type of small full-length portrait. He also depicted genre scenes. Both portraits and genre scenes are meticulously painted, with particular attention paid to the quality of the costumes, the textures of satins and silks.

Ter Borch was the son of a painter who had lived in Italy, Gerard ter Borch the Elder (1584 - 1662). He was born in Zwolle and was first trained by his father.

Early in his career he was in Amsterdam and Haarlem, and he then travelled widely in Europe. He attended the conference that led to the Treaty of Münster in 1648, portrayed in the Gallery's "The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster." Ter Borch settled in Deventer in 1654 and developed an individual style of genre painting. These works often showed figures in domestic interiors making music, reading or writing letters, and drinking. His most important pupil was Caspar Netscher.