Godfried Schalcken

(Made near Breda 1643–1706 The Hague)
A HERMIT READING
 
1670–1675
Oil on canvas, height: 99 cm, width: 78 cm
Signed lower right: G. Schalcken
      
PROVENANCE

• Fo(r)ster Collection, London
• their auction, London, 7 February 1934, lot 163
• with S. Hartveld , art dealer, Antwerp, 1934
• probably Rapps Konsthandel, Stockholm
• Collection of Knut Erik Knutson (1882–1959)

      
LITERATURE
T. Beherman, Godfried Schalcken, Paris 1988, p. 111, cat. no. 27 (dated 1670/75)
      
Godfried Schalcken was one of the leading Dutch Baroque painters of the late seventeenth century. His trademark was the depiction of special light effects. Due to its painterly style and masterful treatment of light, the present painting is a particularly impressive example of the work of Godfried Schalcken. The light, entering from the upper left, falls upon the hermit’s head and then reaches the open manuscript, in which he reads. The warm, golden light illuminates the scene and creates an atmosphere of intimate edification.
 
Schalcken gained considerable recognition above all through his subtle rendering of various types of natural and artificial light. He borrowed the subject of the hermit from his teacher, Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), one of the most famous students of Rembrandt. Unlike Dou, Schalcken no longer focused on the accurate representation of the hermit’s facial features, but sought to elevate the theme through the handling of light.
      
      
Godfried Schalcken
 
Godfried Cornelisz. Schalcken was born in Made in the vicinity of Dordrecht in 1643. He received his first training with Samuel van Hoogstraten in Dordrecht between 1656 and 1662, yet this master only exercised little influence on the young painter. Godfried Schalken was subsequently apprenticed to Gerrit Dou in Leiden, a main representative of the Leiden Fijnschilders. Schalken took to painting small genre scenes that were executed with great virtuosity and exhibited rich detail.
 
Starting in 1675, he painted elegant allegorical and mythological subjects, as well as portraits. After Nicolaes Maes had left the town in 1673, Godfried Schalcken succeeded him in his position as Dordrecht’s foremost portraitist. In the 1680s he finally reached international fame.
 
Schalcken is particularly known for his paintings showing one or several figures in candlelight. Towards the end of his life he worked in The Hague and London. He was also active as a court painter to the elector Palatine in Düsseldorf. Godfried Schalcken died a wealthy and renowned artist in 1706.