Girl with a Candle
Follower of Godefridus Schalcken(Made 1643 – 1706 The Hague)

after 1727
oil on panel
36.83 x 29.84 cm
signed (erroneously) in red paint, lower rightcorner: “G. Schalcken.”
GS-101© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Jansen, Guido. “Girl with a Candle” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/girl-with-a-candle/ (archived May2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrativeoccurs.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Girl with a Candle
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Godefridus Schalcken received his first artistic instruction in Dordrecht in theComparative Figures

studio of his fellow townsman Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78) beginningaround 1656. This period of training certainly ended no later than May 1662,
when Van Hoogstraten left for London.[1] To complete his training, Schalcken
then went to Leiden to study with Gerrit Dou (1613–75), where he probably
remained until about 1664. Although no documents shed light on any ofthese movements, Schalcken did make a portrait etching of Dou with a text
identifying the sitter as his revered teacher: Honoris ergo / Praeceptorum
Su’um delineavit / G. Schalcken (fig 1).[2] From 1672 onward Schalcken isfrequently documented in the archives of Dordrecht, where he had probably
returned by the mid-1660s.[3]During his apprenticeship to Dou, Schalcken learned, among other things,
the art of painting nocturnal lighting effects. During these years Dou
produced a number of his most famous works in this genre, including bothversions of The Evening School.[4] Nevertheless, daylight genre scenes—suchas

depictions

ofoldwomenreading,

quack

doctorsandFig 1. Godefridus Schalcken,
Portrait of Gerrit Dou Wearing aBeret; Bust, Full-Face to Left,
Holding a Roll of Paper, ca.
1665–70, etching, 16.5 x 12.1 cm,
The Leiden Collection, New York,GS-130maidservants—dominated Dou’s oeuvre, and, similarly, Schalcken produced
mainly small daylight genre scenes and only occasionally painted subjects
with artificial illumination.[5]Schalcken did not begin to paint many nocturnal scenes until the late1670s.[6] In fact, only after 1685 did the percentage of his work devoted toartificially lit scenes grow significantly, although night scenes were never so
numerous as to represent the bulk of his oeuvre. The reason for Schalcken’s
growing interest in candlelit scenes was probably Dou’s death in February
1675, which meant that Schalcken was the only master able to meet thedemand for top-quality depictions in this specific genre. In the 1690s
Schalcken displayed his mastery of this specialty in a series of candlelit selfportraits, and these technical tours de force made him famous in his lifetime.
Compositionally, Girl with a Candle would seem to belong to the second andsocially most successful part of Schalcken’s 40-year career. Much as withhis self-portraits, the young woman in this painting holds a candle in her righthand as she turns to look at the viewer. Her long curly hair is tied at the backwith a blue ribbon and falls in waves over her right shoulder. The large pearl
drop dangling on her forehead is fastened to a shorter blue ribbon, and shewears a string of pearls that is visible beneath the large red-orange shawl
draped over her left shoulder. Nevertheless, the pictorial quality of the Leiden
Collection panel is not at Schalcken’s level. The woman’s face lacks© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Girl with a Candle
Page 4 of 9plasticity, and the fingers are rather stiffly executed. Moreover, her clothing ispainted with little tonal differentiation, and the painting lacks local color:
within the overall orange-red glow of the image, only the blue ribbons in her
hair provide color accents.
Dendrochronological analysis of the panel provides reinforcing evidence thatSchalcken did not execute this work: the tree from which the panel was hewn
was felled around 1727, some 18 years after the artist’s death.[7] The factthat paintings bearing Schalcken’s signature were made after his death is
not unexpected. Schalcken’s widow, Françoisia van Diemen (29 August
1661–22 January 1744), who survived her husband by more than 30 years,
inherited the paintings left in Schalcken’s workshop. She continued to sell
paintings for many years, as documented by the sale of a painting in 1733 toJohan Nicolaas (van) Hafften, the agent of the duke of MecklenburgSchwerin. A municipal assessment of The Hague in 1742 indicates that
“Francisca van Diemen, Wid(ow) Schalke, rentenierster” had 3,000 guilders
worth of income that year.[8] It is probable that she supplemented her income
from interest and obligations, and from selling Schalcken’s autographpaintings, by commissioning copies of some of the works in her possession.
These were likely executed by students of her late husband who resided in
The Hague around 1730, among them her nephew Jacob Schalcken (ca.
1682–1733), Godefridus Callenfels (1683–1748), and Antonie de Waardt(1689–1751).[9]Girl with a Candle is known in three other versions on three different
supports. One of these, which was in the Staatliches Museum in Schwerin
before the Second World War, was likewise painted on panel.[10] A version
on copper, which was sold by the Kunsthalle in Hamburg after the FirstWorld War, was last recorded with a London art dealer in 1938.[11] Finally, aversion

on[12]century.

canvaswaslastdocumented

intheearlytwentieth

Copper was the most expensive of these supports, and it isprobable that the version on copper, formerly in Hamburg, was Schalcken’sautograph painting.

- Guido Jansen, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Girl with a Candle
Page 5 of 9Endnotes

1. Van Hoogstraten was active in London until the end of 1667.
2. The print is in Friedrich Wilhelm Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, andWoodcuts ca. 1450–1700, 72 vols. (Amsterdam, 1949–2010), 24: 154, no. 4 with illustration.
The engraver George Vertue (1684–1756) noted the inscription on the print when he saw animpression in the Wardrobe of the Princess Dowager (Catherine of Aragon) in Baynard’s
Castle, London, which he visited some time between 1731 and 1736; George Vertue, “VertueNote Books volume IV” Walpole Society 24 (1935–36): 60. We also know a portrait drawing ofGerrit Dou by Schalcken, which is recorded in the famous collection of artists’ portraits andself-portraits that belonged to the Leiden burgomaster Johan van der Marck (ca. 1694–1770)
and was sold at auction on 29 November 1773 in Amsterdam. Lot 1829 is described asfollows: “[The Portrait] of Gerard Dou, by G. Schalcken, drawn with the pen and black chalk,height 7½ width 6 thumbs [approx. 19 x 15.5 cm]” ([Het Portrait] van Gerard Douw, door G.
Schalken: met de Pen en zwart Kryt getekent, h. 7½ b. 6 duim). RKD (Rijksbureau voor
Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History) Databases, Excerpts,
HdG-fiche 1485240. The dimensions suggest that this was a preparatory study.
3. According to Gerrardys H. Veth, “Godfried Schalcken,” Archief voor Nederlandsche
kunstgeschiedenis, ed. FD.O. Obreen, 7 vols. (1877–90), 6: 2, Schalcken was recorded as
early as 1665 as pennant- or standard-bearer of the seventh standard of the civic militia.
Veth’s source, however, gives the year as 1675. See Matthijs Balen, Beschryvinge der stad
Dordrecht, 2 vols. (Dordrecht, 1677), 1: 688. Still, the first mention of Schalcken in theDordrecht archives, in 1672, refers to the civic militia. On 30 September of that year, a groupof militiamen, including Schalcken, declared, among other things, that they “hebbende nu
enige jaren herwaerts gewoont en gewaeckt onder het vaendel van de Nieuwestraet” (having
lived there several years and guarded [been part of the militia company] under the banner ofthe Nieuwstraat); see the protocol book of the notary Hugo van Dyck, ONA 20.274,
unnumbered folio. Schalcken’s parents lived on Nieuwstraat, so apparently he was living withthem again. The declaration reveals that by this time he had been back in Dordrecht for“several years.” The artist had, in fact, returned to his home town even before this, since one
year later, in 1673, his first recorded painting is described in the inventory of the estate of
Jacob van Neurenberg: “Een keucken met een dienstmaecht die visch schoonmaeckt” (Akitchen with a maidservant cleaning fish). Both records can be found in the unpublishedarchival notes of Abraham Bredius, which are preserved in the RKD (Rijksbureau voorKunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History), Schalcken file.
Considering its subject, this genre piece was probably produced between 1665 and 1670.
See, for example, Thierry S. Beherman, Godfriend Schalcken (Paris, 1988), nos. 141, 142,
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143 (dated 1667), 144, and 160 (dated 1669).
4. Ronni Baer, “The Paintings of Gerrit Dou (1613–1675),” 3 vols. (Ph.D. diss., New York
University, 1990), nos. 81 and 110. See also Ronni Baer, Gerrit Dou, 1613–1675: Master
Painter in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C.,
National Gallery; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Mauritshuis, 2000) (Zwolle,2000), no. 28.
5. On early genre pieces painted from 1665 to 1670, see, for example, Thierry S. Beherman,Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), nos. 141, 142, 143 (dated 1667), 144, and 160 (dated1669).
6. It is noteworthy that none of Schalcken’s students painted scenes with artificial lighting in the1670s. His pupils are Maria Schalcken (ca. 1645–before 1700), the artist’s sister, whoapparently studied with Godefridus around 1665–70; Anthony Vreem (1660–81), who waspresumably Schalcken’s pupil between 1675 and 1681; and Carel de Moor the Younger(1655–1738), who, after the death of Frans van Mieris in 1681, spent some time with
Schalcken in Dordrecht before becoming a member of the Leiden painters’ guild in 1683.
There are no documented works by Simon Germain (1656–ca. 1719), who was apprenticed
to Schalcken in the 1670s.
7. Dendrochronology report by Ian Tyers of November 2012, documentation at The LeidenCollection.
8. “De ‘Rijkdom’ van ’s Gravenhage in 1742,” Algemeen Nederlandsch Familieblad 2 (1884): no.
133 (15 May 1884), 5b.
9. Jacob Schalcken, the son of Godefridus’s youngest brother, Johannes (1660–1724),
returned from London in the company of Schalcken and his family in the fall of 1696, when hemust already have been his uncle’s student. We know that Callenfels was with Schalcken for
four years, and, given Callenfels’s age, this must have been shortly after the master settled
in The Hague. Antonie de Waardt initially studied with Simon van der Does until the latter
moved to Antwerp. This information is derived primarily from unpublished archival notes ofAbrahamBredius,

heldattheRKD(Rijksbureauvoor

Kunsthistorische

Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History), Schalcken file. New information can also
be found in the alphabetical list in Charles Dumas et al., Haagse schilders in de Gouden
Eeuw (The Hague, 1998). On De Waardt, see Abraham Bredius, Künstler-Inventare:
Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten
Jahrhunderts, 7 vols. (The Hague, 1915–21), 3: 1025–30, esp. nos. 17, 80, 81, and 145. Inaddition to the three students mentioned above, Arent Pijl (ca. 1680–after 1721) and a manwith the last name Vincentius studied with Schalcken in The Hague. Arent Pijl was a studentof the The Hague Drawing Academy from 1696 to 1702 and will have spent those years inSchalcken’s studio, after which he finished his training with Carel de Moor in Leiden. In anotarial record of 23 April 1698, Jacobus Schalcken and Arent Pijl declared that two paintings© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Girl with a Candle
Page 7 of 9in the home of Pieter van der Luyt were copies after Schalcken, and were thus alreadyconsidered qualified to authenticate their master’s work; Abraham Bredius, “Een expertisevan 1698” Oud Holland 47 (1930): 157. The student Vincentius, who registered as student of
the The Hague Drawing Academy in 1702, cosigned a notarial record with Schalcken in 1704.
He is likely to be the father of Johannes Vincentius, who was active as portraitist later in theeighteenth century.
10. Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), no. 195 (oil on panel, 36 x 30.8 cm;
HdG no. 222). The catalogue of the museum in Schwerin compiled by Friedrich Schlie,
Beschreibendes Verzeichniss der Werke älterer Meister in der Grossherzoglichen GemäldeGallerie zu Schwerin (Schwerin, 1882), 570, no. 937, contains a facsimile of the signature,
which reveals that this was another version of GS-101. The painting was part of the oldholdings of the dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who had perhaps acquired it from thepainter’s widow. A bill has survived for another painting from Schalcken’s estate that she
sold in 1733 to Johan Nicolaas (van) Hafften, the agent of the duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin;
see my entry in Ekkehard Mai, Sander Paarlberg, and Gregor M. Weber, Vom Adel derMalerei: Holland um 1700 (Exh. cat. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum; Dordrechts,Dordrechts Museum; Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe) (Cologne,2006), 262, no. 74.
11. Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), fig. 195a (oil on copper, 37 x 32 cm;recorded in HdG no. 222). In 1938 the painting was with West’s Galleries in London; seeWest’s Galleries, Winter Exhibition: Dutch and Flemish Portraits and Genre-Pictures of the16th and 17th Centuries, Exh. cat. London, West’s Galleries (London, 1938), no. 21.
12. According to the documentation, the version on canvas (Thierry Beherman, Godfried
Schalcken (Paris, 1988), fig. 195b; Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of theWorks of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work ofJohn Smith, ed. and trans. Edward G. Hawke, 8 vols. [London, 1907–28]; originally publishedas Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. [Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28], 5: no. 222c) was stillat Wilton House in 1907; see Neville Rodwell Wilkinson, Wilton House Pictures (London,1907), no. 278 (47 x 37.5 cm).

Provenance[Kunstsalon Abels, Cologne].
Private collection (sale, Lempertz, 5 November 2003, no. 1137).
[Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam].
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[Salomon Lilian B. V., Amsterdam, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

ReferencesHofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch
Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 5: 374, no. 222a. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as
Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen
Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28. (Possibly).

Versions
Versions & Copies

1. Attributed to Godefridus Schalcken, Young Girl with a Candle, oil on copper, 38 x 31.7 cm,
present location unknown, formerly in Kunsthalle, Hamburg.

2. Attributed to Godefridus Schalcken, Young Woman in Half-Length with a Candle, oil on panel,
36 x 30.8 cm, present location unknown, formerly in Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin.
See Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent
Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. 8 vols.
London, 1907–27. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke derhervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris,
1907–28. London, 1916, no. 222.

3. Attributed to Godefridus Schalcken, A Young Lady with a Lighted Candle, 45.7 x 34.3 cm,present location unknown. See Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of theWorks of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work ofJohn Smith. 8 vols. London, 1907–27. Translated from Beschreibendes und kritisches
Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28. London, 1916, no. 222b.

4. Attributed to Godefridus Schalcken, A Young Lady Holding a Candle, oil on canvas, 47 x 37.5
cm, present location unknown. See Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné ofthe Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on theWork of John Smith. 8 vols. London, 1907–27. Translated from Beschreibendes undkritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Girl with a Candle
Page 9 of 9XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28. London, 1916, no. 222c.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular western European oak from a tree
felled after 1727, has bevels along all four sides.[1] The panel is unthinned and uncradled and has
no machine tool marks. Traces of a gray-green radio-opaque priming along the panel reverse
extend over a faint inscription. Five old paper labels, white chalk, red marker, and black
inscriptions extend over the traces of priming. There are no wax collection seals, import stamps orpanel maker’s marks.
A light gray ground has been thinly and evenly applied.[2] The paint has been applied opaquely
and medium rich, which has allowed a fine network of drying cracks to form through the left sideof the background, along the figure’s cheek, chin and neck depicted in highlight, and along thehorizontal drapery folds below the figure’s neck.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers, and in
the X-radiograph, only the flame tip and the traces of priming along the reverse are identifiable.
The painting is (erroneously) signed in red paint along the lower right corner but isundated.[3] Dendrochronology indicates the oak support derives from a tree felled 21 years after
Schalcken’s death.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2004 and remains
in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on Ian Tyers’s November 2012 dendrochronology
report.

2. Visible in small areas of loss along the center of the lower edge and a small loss along the left
vertical edge (11.5 cm up from the lower edge).
3. The painting was examined on-site. Further investigation under a stereomicroscope could
help determine whether the signature extends over cracks.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection