- Godfried Schalcken
Godfried Schalcken or "Gottfried Schalken" (1643, Made -
November 16 ,1706 ,The Hague ), was a Dutch 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 theLeiden fijnschilder s.Life and work
Godfried Schalcken was born in 1643 at
Dordrecht , and he studied underSamuel van Hoogstraten inDordrecht before he moved toLeiden , into the studio ofGerard Dou (1613-1675), one ofRembrandt 's most famous pupils. His earliergenre picture s 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 visitedEngland (1692-1697), but his uncouth manners and bad temper alienated him from the society there. In 1703 he was employed byJohann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine inDüsseldorf .Schalcken painted several portraits, of which the half-length of
William III of England , now in theRijksmuseum , 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 inBuckingham Palace , theLouvre ,Vienna andDresden . His painting, "Lady, Come into the Garden" (Buckingham Palace), was singled out by his pupilArnold Houbraken as representative of his "ouevre". 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. Hishistory painting 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 bySheridan Le Fanu , which was adapted and broadcast by theBBC atChristmas in 1979. [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1154981/index.html]Further reading
* [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/l/lefanu/purcell/chapter8.html Complete text of Sheridan Le Fanu's short story]
* DeGroot, "Catalogue of Dutch Painters" (New York, 1913)References
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