Young Man Blowing a Torch to Lighta Candle

ca. 1692–96

Godefridus Schalcken and Studio112.8 x 90 cmoil on canvas
GS-106© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Blowing a Torch to Light a Candle
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How To Cite
Jansen, Guido. "Young Man Blowing a Torch to Light a Candle." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Blowing a Torch to Light a Candle
Page 3 of 9This rather large canvas shows a young man with long wavy hair, depicted

Comparative Figures

half-length, holding in his left hand a piece of burning wood, which he hasapparently taken from the fire in a brazier to his right. Blowing on the redhot wood, he sends sparks swirling into the air. He probably needs a flameto light the candle in the simple brass sconce with a wide candle-ring anda handle with an eyelet, which he grips with his right hand. The young
woman behind him gazes at the viewer; her hair is put up in a style calledà
la Fontange.[1] As evident from the exceptionally large pearl drop adorning
her left ear and the pearl necklace she wears, this woman is dressedà lamode and belongs to the upper class. The bunch of onions hanging on thewall and the shelf above the young man’s head indicate, however, that thescene is set in a less than elegant room, which is obviously a kitchen orpantry.

Fig 1. Godefridus Schalcken, BoyBlowing on a Firebrand to Light aCandle, 1692–96, oil on canvas,
75 x 63.5 cm, National Gallery ofScotland, Edinburgh, NG 2495

This composition is most closely related to Boy Blowing on a Firebrand toLight a Candle (fig 1), a work that Godefridus Schalcken painted for oneof his most important patrons, Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland(1641–1702), some time between the spring of 1692 and the autumn of1696, the period in which he worked in England.[2] At Althorp, LordSpencer’s country estate in Northamptonshire, the painting was seen in
the early eighteenth century by the engraver George Vertue (1684–1756),
who praised it highly by quoting the epigram that John Elsum had
published on this work in 1700: “A Night-piece of a Boy blowing aFirebrand; suppos’d by Schalcken. Striving to Blow the Brand into aFlame, he brightens his own face, and the Author’s Fame.”[3] The painting,which has been in Edinburgh since 1989, must have been held in highregard, considering the fairly large number of old copies of it that areFig 2. El Greco, Boy Blowing on
an Ember to Light a Candle, ca.
1570–75, oil on canvas, 60.5 x
50.5 cm, Museo Nazionale diCapodimonte, Naples, Q192

known.[4] The artist, too, must have been satisfied with that work, as heused it as the model for the present painting, most likely originating in thesame period.
The most striking difference between the two paintings is that in theLeiden Collection’s painting the elegantly dressed woman is seen in anordinary setting. Somewhat less conspicuous is the difference in artistic
quality between the two canvases. The consistently higher quality of thecanvas in Edinburgh suggests that it was painted entirely by Schalcken. In
the painting discussed here, the effects of artificial lighting—the piece ofburning wood, the flying sparks, and the glowing hearth—are also
rendered with great virtuosity, allowing us to see in these elements the© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Blowing a Torch to Light a Candle
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master’s touch. The figures, however, seem less skillfully rendered: theyoung man’s hands and his coat, as well as the female figure behind him,are painted stiffly and with little tonal differentiation, which strongly
suggests that Schalcken’s studio assistants had a hand in theirexecution.[5]From the beginning of his career, Schalcken had pupils working in hisstudio. His sister Maria (ca. 1645–before 1700) must have been one of thefirst to join his studio when he returned to Dordrecht.[6] Beginning in about
1675, he frequently took his pupils along to the notary to witness various
documents he had drafted.[7] Unfortunately, no such documents exist from
Schalcken’s time in England, but we may safely assume that he ran hisLondon studio in much the same way. Only the painter Gramagli, active asa portraitist in England, can be named as a possible pupil of Schalcken inLondon. Gramagli is recorded only once in this context, in an accountwritten by Allart de la Court (1688–1755) of a tour he made of England in
1710. While in Exeter he described the following meeting: “On 11 June wevisited a Dutch painter named Gramagli, who had been a pupil ofSchalken [sic]; [he] was a portrait painter, but of the worst sort.”[8] Be thatas it may, if indeed Gramagli was Schalcken’s pupil in London, he wasprobably not the only assistant in his teacher’s studio.
The canvas in Edinburgh and the Leiden Collection painting come from along tradition of works in which a young man blows on a smoldering pieceof wood, a subject that demanded an exceptionally high degree oftechnical skill to realize the necessary lighting effects. One of the firstpainters to portray this subject was Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as
El Greco (1541–1614), who painted a number of works in Rome around
1570–75, including Boy Blowing on an Ember to Light a Candle (fig 2), of
which several contemporary copies exist.[9] In the same period, the subject
was also painted in Venice, mostly as part of large history or genre pieces.
The blowing-on-embers motif soon became particularly popular among themany followers of Caravaggio in northern and southern Europe. In theNetherlands the “Caravaggisti” were concentrated in Utrecht, which is why
such masters as Gerrit van Honthorst (1592–1656), Hendrick ter
Brugghen (1588–1629), and Abraham Bloemaert (1566–1651), to nameonly a few, painted subjects of this kind. In Leiden, where Schalcken had
been trained by Gerrit Dou (1613–75), Jan Lievens (1607–74) was the one© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Blowing a Torch to Light a Candle
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who introduced this subject. In a panel painting that dates from around
1624–25, Lievens portrayed a young man blowing on a torch in a series of
the Four Elements.[10]The popularity of this subject was certainly boosted by the discovery of its
art-theoretical legitimation in the form of an ekphrasis, a pictorialdescription of an artwork from antiquity. Pliny, for example, gives in hisNaturalis historia the names of two Greek artists, each of whom had
produced a legendary work in which a boy blows on a fire that has almost
gone out, and in which the reflection of the fire on the boy’s face wasdeemed the result of exceptional artistic skill.[11]It is unlikely, however, that ekphrasis was of paramount importance toSchalcken. The utmost faithfulness to life in the depiction of artificial
illumination was surely his top priority. Nevertheless, in the work of
Schalcken a flame—whether that of a torch, candle, or lamp—often served
as a metaphorical representation of the spark of passion that could beignited between two people (see GS-103). Even so, it is unclear whether
this type of spark was intended in Young Man Blowing a Torch to Light aCandle, considering that the bejeweled woman in the background is too
far removed from the youth to suggest an amorous context. In any case, it
was the artist’s aim to amaze the viewer with his brilliant rendering ofvarious kinds of fire and glow, and their reflections on objects in theimmediate surroundings.
-Guido Jansen© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Blowing a Torch to Light a Candle
Page 6 of 9Endnotes
1. The hairdo was named after the marquise de Fontange, who was praised by her lover, Louis
XIV, when she appeared at court in the summer of 1680 with her hair piled high on her head,after which this hair style remained hugely popular among all women of standing until about
1710.
2. The ninth child born to the Schalckens was named Godefridus after his father and baptizedin The Hague on 3 February 1697. Therefore, Schalcken and his family probably left London
at the end of 1696, since it is unlikely that he would have subjected his heavily pregnant wife
to a dangerous journey.
3. For Vertue and Elsum’s epigram, see Kenneth J.Garlick, “A Catalogue of the Pictures atAlthorp,” The Walpole Society 54 (1974–76), 76, no. 585. George Vertue, “Vertue NoteBooks volume II,” The Walpole Society 20 (1931–32), 16, refers to Epigrams upon thePaintings of the Most Eminent Masters, Ancient and Modern, with Reflexions upon theSeveral Schools of Painting, by J. E., Esq. (London, 1700). The verse in question isepigram 137. George Vertue, “Vertue Note Books Volume V,” The Walpole Society 26(1937–38), 57, describes the connection between the artist and Robert Spencer: “Schalcken
painted several pictures for Ld Sunderland which were to be seen amongst his collection—at
his Seat in Northamtonshire [sic]—called Althorp—by this it appears that Noble Lord
encouraged him and patronized his works.”
4. Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), no. 326; because Beherman had
never seen the work with his own eyes, he incorrectly included it in his book as a copy. He
also listed another copy that was in fact known to him. The National Gallery of Scotland lists
at least five more copies; with thanks to Christian Tico Seiffert, senior curator. The large
number of copies was undoubtedly prompted by the many prints published after this painting
in the eighteenth century; the website of the British Museum gives the names of Richard
Purcell (active ca. 1746–68), Philip Corbut (active ca. 1746–66), Charles Spooner(1720–67), Johan Faber the Younger (ca. 1695–1756), and James Wilson (active ca.
1760–80) as the makers of prints after the painting.
5. It is no coincidence that in 2006 this painting, which is not entirely convincing, was sold by
Christie’s in Amsterdam as “attributed to Schalcken”; evidently the specialists at this auction
house did not consider it a completely autograph work by the master.
6. On 26 July 1682, in Dordrecht, the banns (marriage announcements) of Maria Schalcken
and Severijn van Bracht were published; Dordrecht city archives (Erfgoedcentrum DiEP),
ONA 20.243 (unnumbered) Notary Govert de With, 20 April 1683. The couple had at least
one daughter, Anna (b. 1683), and one son, Cornelis (b. 1685). In July 1700 her husband
once again had his banns published, so by that time he was a widower. For herSelf-Portrait© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Blowing a Torch to Light a Candle
Page 7 of 9at the Easel, incorrectly recorded by Beherman as a work by Godefridus, see Thierry
Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), no. 61; for this very painting, now in the De
Mol van Otterloo collection, see Frederik J. Duparc, et al. Golden: Dutch and Flemish
Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (Exh. cat. Salem,
Peabody Essex Museum; San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Houston,Museum of Fine Arts Houston) (New Haven, 2011), 279–81, no. 57, with outdated
biographical information. For more information about Maria, see Marloes Huiskamp’s note
online, which includes several details supplied by myself.
7. This, at any rate, is the picture that emerges from the many notarial documents in Dordrecht
and The Hague that bear Schalcken’s signature alongside those of various pupils.
8. “Den 11 Juny gongen wy by een Hollandse schilder genaamt Gramagli, welke een Discipel
was geweest van Schalken; was een Portretschilder dog van de slegste soort.” FelixDriessen, De reizen der De la Courts 1641–1700–1710 (Leiden, 1928), 99. De la Court
called the town Exon or Exchester. Nicolaas de Roever also knew this document, but hadread the name of the painter as “Giamagli,” which is why Hofstede de Groot recorded him as
such as a pupil of Schalcken in his Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis; this namewas subsequently misspelled in yet another way by Beherman, who recorded it as “Giamali.”
See Nicolaas de Roever, “Een bezoek aan den Ridder Adriaen van der Werff, kunstschilder,in 1710,” Oud Holland 5 (1887), 70; Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes undkritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII.
Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28), 5:440; and Thierry Beherman,
Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), 28. Nothing else is known about this painter.
9. Harold E. Wethey, El Greco and His School, 2 vols. (Princeton, 1962), 2:78–79, nos. 121
and 122, and 2:195, nos. X-137–X-140, for the copies. See also David Davies, John H.
Elliott, and Xavier Bray, El Greco (Exh. cat. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; London,National Gallery) (London, 2003), 221–31, nos. 63/65.
10. Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered , ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam,Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (New Haven, 2008), 7–8, with ill.
11. Jan Bialostocki, “Puer sufflans ignes,” in The Message of Images: Studies in the History ofArt (Vienna, 1988), 139–44. Pliny refers in his Naturalis historia at 34:79 and 35:138 to thetwo antique artworks, one by Lycius, the other by Antiphilus.

Provenance
Private collection, Northern Europe.1[1]© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man Blowing a Torch to Light a Candle
Page 8 of 9(Sale, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 16 November 2006, no. 70 [to Johnny Van Haeften, Ltd.,
London, and Salomon Lilian, Amsterdam]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Provenance Notes

1. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the earlier whereabouts of this rather large painting.
A note made by Hofstede de Groot, kept at the RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History) inThe Hague, reveals that in August 1926 he assessed a painting by Schalcken for the art
dealers Duret and Baumgartner in Geneva. He noted: “Twee levensgroote figuren, bijkaarslicht. Echt, maar te groot om aantrekkelijk te zijn. Verz. Comtesse de Broussillon,vroeger Julien Gréau rue de Verneil Parijs” (Two life-size figures by candlelight. Genuine,
but too large to be attractive. Collection Comtesse de Broussillon, formerly Julien Gréau ruede Verneil Paris). RKD Databases, Excerpts, HdG-fiche 1481675. Regrettably, there is noinformation on its measurements or support.

Exhibition History
Kansas City, Missouri, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, on loan with the permanentcollection, January–December 2009 [lent by the present owner].
Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, on loan with the permanent collection, March 2013–March
2016 [lent by the present owner].

VersionsVersions and Copies
1. Godefridus Schalcken, Boy Blowing on a Firebrand to Light a Candle , oil on canvas, 75 x
63.5 cm, signed bottom center “G. Schalcken,” National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, NG2495.

Versions Notes© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Young Man Blowing a Torch to Light a Candle
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Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of medium-weight, plain-weave fabric, has been lined. All fourtacking margins have been almost entirely removed, and narrow remnants of unprimed fabricremain. Cusping along the upper and lower edges suggests the original dimensions have notbeen significantly altered. There are no wax collection seals, canvas stamps, inscriptions orlabels along the lining or stretcher.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied. The paint has been applied smoothlyin opaque layers blended wet-into-wet with no use of impasto. The shadows along the figure’s
flesh tones and garments have been applied in thin glazes. Highlights along the flame, glowing
embers, and candleholder have been applied with slightly raised brushwork.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers andno compositional changes are noted. There is no X-radiograph of the painting.
The painting appears to be unsigned and undated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2006 and remains
in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden Collection