Godfried Schalcken or
Gottfried Schalken (1643,
MadeDrimmelen is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands.- Population centres :Towns:*Made *Terheijden *Lage Zwaluwe *Wagenberg *Hooge Zwaluwe *Drimmelen...
- November 16, 1706,
The HagueThe Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 485,818 and an area of approximately 100 km²...
), was a
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
genre and portrait painter. He was noted for his mastery in reproducing the effect of candlelight, and painted in the exquisite and highly polished manner of the Leiden fijnschilders.
Godfried Schalcken was born in 1643 at
DordrechtDordrecht is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, the Netherlands. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,390 in 2008...
, and he studied under Samuel van Hoogstraten in
DordrechtDordrecht is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, the Netherlands. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,390 in 2008...
before he moved to
LeidenLeiden is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands and has 118,000 inhabitants. It forms a single urban area with Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk, with 254,000 inhabitants. It is located on the Old Rhine, close to the cities...
, into the studio of
Gerard DouGerard Dou, also known as Gerrit and Douw or Dow , was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly-polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders...
(1613-1675), one of
RembrandtRembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history...
's most famous pupils.
Godfried Schalcken or
Gottfried Schalken (1643,
MadeDrimmelen is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands.- Population centres :Towns:*Made *Terheijden *Lage Zwaluwe *Wagenberg *Hooge Zwaluwe *Drimmelen...
- November 16, 1706,
The HagueThe Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 485,818 and an area of approximately 100 km²...
), was a
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
genre and portrait painter. He was noted for his mastery in reproducing the effect of candlelight, and painted in the exquisite and highly polished manner of the Leiden fijnschilders.
Life and work
Godfried Schalcken was born in 1643 at
DordrechtDordrecht is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, the Netherlands. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,390 in 2008...
, and he studied under Samuel van Hoogstraten in
DordrechtDordrecht is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, the Netherlands. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,390 in 2008...
before he moved to
LeidenLeiden is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands and has 118,000 inhabitants. It forms a single urban area with Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk, with 254,000 inhabitants. It is located on the Old Rhine, close to the cities...
, into the studio of
Gerard DouGerard Dou, also known as Gerrit and Douw or Dow , was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly-polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders...
(1613-1675), one of
RembrandtRembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history...
's most famous pupils. His earlier genre pictures very closely resemble Dou's work. He worked in Leiden until c. 1675, then returning to Dordrecht until 1691, after which he settled in The Hague, where he continued to paint until his death, near age 63, in 1706. He also visited
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(1692-1697), but his uncouth manners and bad temper alienated him from the society there. In 1703 he was employed by
Johann Wilhelm, Elector PalatineJohann Wilhelm II, Elector Palatine, also known as Johann Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg , was Elector Palatine , Duke Palatine of Neuburg/Danube , Duke of Jülich and Berg , and Duke of Upper Palatinate and Cham...
in
DüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the second most international and economically important centre of Germany, after Frankfurt, and is located in the center of the Rhein-Ruhr area, Europe's most populated metropolitan area...
.
Schalcken painted several portraits, of which the half-length of
William III of EnglandWilliam III was a sovereign Prince of Orange by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland, and as William II over Scotland...
, now in the
RijksmuseumThe Rijksmuseum Amsterdam or Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, located on the Museumplein. The museum is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history...
, Amsterdam, is a good example. Like Dou, Schalcken specialised in small scenes it by candlelight, a technique that found favour with the fijnschilders. Examples are in
Buckingham PalaceBuckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
, the
LouvreThe Musée du Louvre or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre — is the largest national museum of France, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, located on the Right Bank of the...
,
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
and
DresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
. His painting,
Lady, Come into the Garden (Buckingham Palace), was singled out by his pupil
Arnold HoubrakenArnold Houbraken was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of artists from the Dutch Golden Age. He had ten children. His son Jacobus Houbraken was an engraver of portraits and book illustrations, including books by his father...
as representative of his
oeuvre. Other good examples are
Old Woman Scouring a Pan and
Soldier Giving Money to a Woman (London, National Gallery),
Ceres Seeking Proserpine and
Old Man Writing (Louvre),
Girl Blowing Out Taper (Munich),
Girl Reading Letter (Dresden Gallery),
The Boy Angling (Berlin); and
Toilet by Candle (The Hague). The Buckingham Palace collection also possesses an interior by Schalcken. His
history paintingHistory painting, as formulated in 1667 by André Félibien, a historiographer, architect and theoretician of French classicism, was in the hierarchy of genres considered to be the grand genre.-Description:...
s are less-well known.
"Schalken the Painter"
The atmospheric work of Schalken provided the inspiration for "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter" (sic), a gothic horror story by
Sheridan Le FanuJoseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the premier ghost story writer of the nineteenth century and had a seminal influence on the development of this genre in the Victorian era.-Biography:Sheridan Le Fanu was born at 45 Lower Dominick Street,...
, which was adapted and broadcast by the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
at
ChristmasChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
in 1979.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1154981/index.html
Further reading