Godfried Schalcken (1643 - 1706), Dutch genre and portrait painter, was born at Dort.
He studied under Hoogstraten, and afterwards under Gerhard Douw, whose works his earlier genre-pictures very closely resemble. He visited England and painted several portraits, of which the half-length of William III, now in the Museum, Amsterdam, is a good example.
In this work he shows an effect of candlelight, which he also introduced--frequently with fine effect in many of his subject-pictures. These may be studied in the collections at Buckingham Palace, the Louvre, Vienna and Dresden. His Scriptural subjects are of very indifferent merit. He died at The Hague in 1706.
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopędia Britannica.
In particular, he refers to a work by GodfriedSchalcken, which in the foreground shows a woman with a coy expression wearing a white robe and standing behind her a man with an alarmed expression about to draw his sword.
Schalcken selects a model and undertakes a series of paintings based on classical and mythological subjects which usually feature her partially naked.
Schalcken marries and when he is offered a vast sum to paint a portrait on commission, he agrees to do it.
GodfriedSchalcken studied with Gerard Dou in Leiden.
The young Schalcken accepted the challenge and elected to specialise in scenes illuminated by candlelight, achieving an unequalled standard in this singular genre in a remarkable short space of time.
Schalcken's painting is not so minutely detailed as his teacher's.
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