Young Man and Woman Studying a Statueof Venus, by Lamplight
Godefridus Schalcken(Made 1643 – 1706 The Hague)ca. 1688–92
oil on canvas
43.8 x 34.9 cm
signed faintly lower right on the base of the statue:“G. Schalcken”
GS-103© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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How to cite
Jansen, Guido. “Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight” (2017). In The Leiden Collection
Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

In this engaging and atmospheric picture, a young man is shown wearing a painter’sComparative Figures

beret and holding a drawing in his left hand that displays the contours of the plaster or
marble statue of a kneeling nude woman in front of him. He points to this statue withhis right hand while looking up at the young woman standing next to him, to whom heapparently explains the drawing and the statue. A copper oil lamp illuminates thescene, which is closed off on the right by a green curtain. Discernible in the rightforeground is the plaster cast of the head of an antique female figure, probably the socalled Juno Cesi.[1] Godefridus Schalcken might have been familiar with the actual
antique statue of the kneeling Venus (or Aphrodite), or he might have owned a plastercast of it. He could also have known of this fragment through an engraving by Jan deBisschop (1628–1671), which De Bisschop based on a drawing by the Roman artist
Franceso Salviati (1510–63). Bisschop published this drawing in his Signorum veterum
icones of 1671 (fig 1).[2]Because of its subject—the viewing of art—the painting has previously beeninterpreted mainly in the context of art theory. Young painters, who had to study

Fig 1. Jan de Bisschop after Francesco
Salviati, Crouching Aphrodite,engraving, plate 77 in his Signorum
veterum icones (Hagae-Comitis, 1671)

antique sculptures before progressing to drawing from a live model,[3] were advised to
draw such sculptures by artificial light; this approach caused the contours of the
sculptures to emerge more clearly and allowed the artist to practice rendering objects
in relief. This academic practice has fused perfectly here with Schalcken’s artistic
strength: rendering nocturnal scenes illuminated by artificial light. The glowing flameof the oil lamp both models the smooth surface of the sculpture and gently illuminates
the young painters, drawing them together through the subdued reddish tonalities of
their faces. Indeed, the atmospheric effects created by the flow of light and color
across this image—from the flame’s white heat to the sculpture’s muted ivory-coloredFig 2. Godefridus Schalcken, Allegoryof the Treaty of Nijmegen, ca.
1688–92, oil on canvas, 66 x 82 cm,© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
Page 3 of 9

surface and the softly-lit figures—are beautifully rendered and quite evocative.

Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen,1980.12The presence of lamplight may also allude to studious diligence and dedication—afigurative illumination, or enlightenment, resulting from the true artist’s rigoroustraining. Schnackenburg, a strong proponent of this view, considers the entire painting
to be exemplary of a new stylistic and thematic direction in Schalcken’s art, in which
he examines Bisschop’s ideas and ponders classicist thought.[4] Crucial to thisinterpretation is the identification of the young man in the painting as Schalcken
himself.[5] Schnackenburg also attaches great importance to the presence of the statueof Venus, which in her eyes refers to the rivalry between painting and sculpture.[6]The presence of the statue of Venus is clearly significant, but it has less to do with themany art-theoretical notions attached to the figure than to her role as the goddess oflove for the ancient Greeks and Romans alike. Here the subject chiefly involves thelove presumed to exist between the young man and the young woman, for which themagnificently spotlighted statue of Venus serves as a catalyst. The amorous context
depicted here fits in perfectly with the main themes found in Schalcken’s oeuvre,
which is filled with references to the kindling of love between two people. The

Fig 3. François de Poilly, Thesis ofLouis-Nicolas and Louis-Francis Le
Tellier, 1684, engraving, 121 x 82.5
cm, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Est.
AA-6

multiple layers of meaning that can be found in this composition make it clear that
Schalcken gave great thought to his subjects, an observation previously made byHecht.[7]Beherman dated this small work to between 1680 and 1685, owing to his
identification of the protagonists as the painter and his young wife, Françoisia vanDiemen, who married in 1679. The dating of Schalcken’s genre and history paintings
is often problematic because we know only a handful of dated genre scenes and half adozen dated history paintings, which mainly stem from his later years (seeGS-112).
[8]

Nevertheless, Beherman’s dating of Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue ofVenus, by Lamplight neglects the fact that the work—in Schalcken’s most frequently
used format of approximately 44 by 34.9 cm—is painted on canvas. At that stage in
his career he would have been more likely to execute paintings of this size on panel,or occasionally on copper (see, for example, GS-102). Moreover, the dry, thinmanner of painting and the use of pastel hues, evident here in the figures’ pink lips,

Fig 4. Godefridus Schalcken, Portraitof a Lady, Bust-Length, in a Black
Dress with White Lace Trim, Here
Identified as Françoisia van Diemen,
the Artist’s Wife, 1692–96, oil on
copper, 9 x 7.4 cm, oval, Private
Collection, © Dordrechts Museum/
Marco de Nood

also differ from the works painted around 1680.
Stylistically, Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight isclosely related to Schalcken’s Allegory of the Treaty of Nijmegen (fig 2).[9] Beherman
dated this latter painting, of a size rather large for Schalcken, to around 1676–77,
largely because the French painter Henri Gascard (1635–1701) produced athematically similar work depicting The Signing of the Treaty of Nijmegen between
France and Spain on 17 September 1678, which is preserved in the Museum Het
Valkhof in Nijmegen.[10] It is more likely, however, that Schalcken’s Allegory of the© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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Treaty of Nijmegen, with its thin application of paint and somewhat divergent,tempered use of color, originated around 1688–92, toward the end of the artist’s
activities in Dordrecht. This stylistic dating can be underpinned in yet another way.
For this unusual composition, Schalcken appears to have made use of a Frenchengraving published in Paris by François de Poilly (1623–93) in 1684 (fig 3).[11]Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight should, therefore,
be dated to the same period, from around 1688 to 1692. This later dating immediately
calls into question the identification of the young artist and his pupil as Schalcken andhis wife. Moreover, a small, recently discovered portrait of Françoisia reveals that inthese years, having given birth to eight children, she no longer looked as she did in the[12]

first year of her marriage (fig 4).

The influence of Schalcken’s teacher Gerrit Dou (1613–75) is still present to aremarkable degree in this late painting. Dou painted a large number of works
portraying an artist, mostly himself, sometimes working in his studio but always

Fig 5. Gerrit Dou, A Young Artist
Drawing by Lamplight, ca. 1650–55,
oil on panel, 29 x 23.5 cm, Musées
royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique,
Brussels, inv. 86, © Royal Museumsof Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels /photo: J. Geleyns – Ro scan

wearing a painter’s cap.[13] Occasionally the artist is shown drawing a statue by thelight of an oil lamp, as in An Artist Drawing in Brussels (fig 5), which is the work
most closely related in subject to Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus,
by Lamplight.[14]- Guido Jansen, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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Endnotes
1. Sophie Schnackenburg, “‘Studium’ und ‘Inspiratio’: Godfried Schalcken’s Gemälde ‘Kunstbetrachtung
bei Lampenlicht’ (um 1680/85) im Spannungsfeld ikonographischer Tradition und zeitgenössischer
Kunsttheorie,” Müncher Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 54 (2003): 183.
2. Jan Gerrit van Gelder and Ingrid Jost, Jan de Bisschop and His Icones & Paradigmata: Classical
Antiquities and Italian Drawings for Artistic Instruction in Seventeenth-Century Holland, ed. Keith
Andrews (Doornspijk, 1985), 161–63, no. 77 with illustration.
3. Betsy Wieseman, in De Zichtbaere Werelt: Schilderkunst uit de Gouden Eeuw in Hollands oudste stad, ed.
Peter Marijnissen, Wim de Paus, Peter Schoon, and George Schweitzer (Exh. cat. Dordrecht,
Dordrechts Museum) (Zwolle, 1992), 267. Also Ekkehard Mai in Wettstreit der Künste: Malerei und
Skulptur von Dürer bis Daumier, ed. Ekkehard Mai and Kurt Wettengl (Exh. cat. Cologne, WallrafRichartz-Museum, Fondation Corboud) (Wolfratshausen, 2002), 331.
4. Sophie Schnackenburg, “‘Studium’ und ‘Inspiratio’: Godfried Schalcken’s Gemälde ‘Kunstbetrachtung
bei Lampenlicht’ (um 1680/85) im Spannungsfeld ikonographischer Tradition und zeitgenössischer
Kunsttheorie,” Müncher Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 54 (2003): 183–217.
5. This identification was first published in Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988). See also
Sophie Schnackenburg, “‘Studium’ und ‘Inspiratio’: Godfried Schalcken’s Gemälde ‘Kunstbetrachtung
bei Lampenlicht’ (um 1680/85) im Spannungsfeld ikonographischer Tradition und zeitgenössischer
Kunsttheorie,” Müncher Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 54 (2003): 207 n. 4, for all those who adopted
Beherman’s identification.
6. In addition to Sophie Schnackenburg, “‘Studium’ und ‘Inspiratio’: Godfried Schalcken’s Gemälde‘Kunstbetrachtung bei Lampenlicht’ (um 1680/85) im Spannungsfeld ikonographischer Tradition undzeitgenössischer Kunsttheorie,” Müncher Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 54 (2003): 183–217, see alsoPeter Hecht, “Art Beats Nature, and Painting Does So Best of All: The Paragone Competition in
Duquesnoy, Dou and Schalcken” Simiolus 29 (2002): 184–201.
7. Peter Hecht, “Candlelight and Dirty Fingers, or Royal Virtue in Disguise: Some Thoughts on Weyerman
and Godfried Schalcken,” Simiolus 11 (1980): 23–38; and Peter Hecht, ed., De Hollandse fijnschilders:
Van Gerard Dou tot Adriaen van der Werff (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1989),
182–216.
8. For the dated genre pieces, see Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), nos. 143 (1667),
151 (1669), 160 (1682), and 168 (1690). To these we should perhaps add the small painting of 1692 inToronto; see entry GS-112, fig. 1. The history paintings date from 1690, 1691 and 1700; see Thierry
Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), nos. 10, 19, 34, 37, and 40–41.
9. Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), no. 47.
10. The canvas of 161 x 274.5 cm was painted in 1679; Gerard Lemmens and Peter B. M. Sliepenbeek, De© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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Vrede van Nijmegen (1678–1978) (Nijmegen, 1978), 59–64 with illustrations.
11. The exceptional engraving contains the thesis with which Louis-Nicolas and Louis-Francis Le Tellier
obtained their doctorates on 28 July 1684 at the Collège d’Harcourt in Paris; José Lothe, L’oeuvre gravéde François et Nicolas de Poilly d’Abbeville, graveurs parisiens du XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1994), 236–37, no.
371 with illustration. In all likelihood Schalcken knew this unique print through the Flemish engraver
and art dealer Jan van der Bruggen (1649–ca. 1699), who was living in Paris in those years. Schalcken’s
Recognition of Constance (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) was taken to Paris by Van der Bruggen,who never paid for it. This gave rise to a number of legal entanglements that occurred between 1688 and
1691; Peter Hecht, ed., De Hollandse fijnschilders: van Gerard Dou tot Adriaen van der Werff (Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Amsterdam, 1989), 190–93. Van der Bruggen and the engraver François de
Poilly were next-door neighbors on Rue Saint-Jacques; José Lothe, L’oeuvre gravé de François et Nicolasde Poilly d’Abbeville, graveurs parisiens du XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1994), 373.
12. This is a small oval portrait of Françoisia, which, given its dark blue background, must be dated to
Schalcken’s London years, 1692–96. It was sold as the portrait of an anonymous lady by someone in the“Circle of Schalcken” at Christie’s in Amsterdam on 22 September 2009, lot 132 with color illustration.
However, the portrait bears Schalcken’s monogram at the lower left center. Dr. Eddy Schavemaker andthe present author identified the sitter as the wife of the painter on the basis of her portrait of 1706;
Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), no. 59 with color illustration. In fact, Françoisia’s
ninth child, Godefridus, was baptized on 3 February 1697 in The Hague, which suggests that Schalcken
and his family had already left England by the end of 1696, since it stands to reason that he would nothave exposed his heavily pregnant wife to the dangers of such a journey.
13. Cf. 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 of Art; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery;
The Hague, Mauritshuis) (Zwolle, 2000), nos. 1, 3, 7, 20, and 29.
14. Henri Pauwels et al., Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België, Departement Oude Kunst,
inventariscatalogus van de oude schilderkunst (Brussels, 1984), 92, inv. no. 86.

Provenance(Possible sale, Christie’s, London, 18 April 1832, no. 57 [to Penell for £2.2 £].)
Sir Giles Sebright (1869–1954), 13th Baronet (his sale, Christie’s, London, 2 July 1937, no. 130).
(Sale, Christie’s, London, 4 March 1938, no. 66).
[Galerie Lingenauber, Düsseldorf, by 1988.][Galerie Edel, Cologne, 1988 (to private collection).]Private collection (sale, Sotheby’s London, 6 July 2000, no. 71.)
© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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(Sale, Hampel Fine Art Auctions, Munich, 8 December 2006, no. 310.)[Salomon Lilian BV, Amsterdam, 2006].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Exhibition History
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, “De Zichtbaere Werelt: Schilderkunst uit de Gouden Eeuw in Hollands
oudste stad,” 29 November 1992–28 February 1993, no. 72.
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, “Wettstreit der Künste: Malerei und
Skulptur von Dürer bis Daumier,” 25 May–25 August 2002, no. 121.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, September
2009–September 2015 [lent by the present owner].
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, “Schalcken – Gemalte Verführung,” 25
September 2015–24 January 2016; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, 21 February–26 June 2016, no. 14[lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,” 22
February-22 May 2017, no. 25 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017, no. 43 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018, no. 43 [lent by thepresent owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018, no. 70 [lent by the present owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces of
The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019, no. 70 [lent by the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019, no. 73 [lent by thepresent owner].
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, “Breathing,” 30 September 2022–12 February 2023 [lent by thepresent owner].

References© 2024 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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Beherman, Thierry. Godfried Schalcken. Paris, 1988, 150–51, no. 54.
Marijnissen, Peter et al., eds. De Zichtbaere Werelt: Schilderkunst uit de Gouden Eeuw in Hollands oudste
stad. Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Zwolle, 1992, 267, no. 72.
Mai, Ekkehard. Das Kabinett des Sammlers: Gemälde vom XV. bis XVIII. Jahrhundert. Cologne, 1993,
226–28, no. 90.
Mai, Ekkehard, and Kurt Wettengl. Wettstreit der Künste: Malerei und Skulptur von Dürer bis Daumier.
Exh. cat. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud. Wolfratshausen, 2002, 331, no.
121.
Neumeister, Mirjam. Das Nachtstück mit Kunstlicht in der niederländischen Malerei und Graphik des 16.
und 17. Jahrhunderts. Petersberg, 2003, 340 and 415, no. 16.
Schnackenburg, Sophie. “‘Studium’ und ‘Inspiratio’: Godfried Schalcken’s Gemälde ‘Kunstbetrachtung
bei Lampenlicht’ (um 1680/85) im Spannungsfeld ikonographischer Tradition und zeitgenössischer
Kunsttheorie.” Müncher Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 54 (2003): 183–217, no. 1.
Franits, Wayne. Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution. New
Haven, 2004, 247–49, no. 227.
Cook, Nicole Elizabeth. “Eros, Intimität und Begehren in den Genrebildern von Godefridus Schalcken.”
In Schalcken – Gemalte Verführung, edited by Anja K. Sevcik, 81–84. Exh. cat. Cologne, WallrafRichartz-Museum; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Stuttgart, 2015.
Jansen, Guido M.C. “Ein Mann und ene Frau betrachten beim Schein einer Lampe eine Venus-Statue,
1685-90.” In Schalcken – Gemalte Verführung, edited by Anja K. Sevcik, 122–24, no. 14. Exh. cat.
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Stuttgart, 2015.
Cook, Nicole Elizabeth. “From Amoris Causa to Pygmalion’s Creative Dream: Schalcken’s Young Man
and Woman Looking at a Statuette by Lamplight and Theories of Love in Art.” Wallraf-RichartzJahrbuch 77 (2016): 127–43.
McCarthy, Alexa. “Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight.” In Masterpiecesof The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Dominique Surh, 70, no.
25. Exh. cat. Paris, Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Rembrandt and His Time: China and the Dutch Republic in the Golden Age.” In
Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt.
Translated by Li Ying, 10; 15, no. 43. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight.” In
Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt.
Translated by Li Ying, 106–7; 182, no. 43. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age: Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 118, 121.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Young Man and Women Studying a Statue of Venus.” In The Age of Rembrandt
and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova. Translated by Daria© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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Babich and Daria Kuzina, 206–7; 246, no. 70. Exh.cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine
Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu
Dhabi. London, 2019, 152–3, no. 73. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Craske, Matthew. Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Darkness. London, 2020, 98, fig. 54.
Lores-Chavez, Isabella. “Plaster Casts in the Life and Art of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painters.” PhD
diss., Columbia University, 2022, 303; 391, fig. 4.19; 431.
Franits, Wayne. Godefridus Schalcken: A Late 17th-century Dutch Painter in Pursuit of Fame andFortune. London, 2023, 73–75, fig. 40.

Technical Summary
The support, a single piece of coarse, plain-weave fabric, has been lined. All four tacking margins have been
almost entirely removed, and narrow remnants of primed fabric remain. Cusping along the upper edge only
suggests the support has been cut from a larger primed fabric. There is one paper label but no wax collection
seals, stencils, or import stamps along the lining or stretcher.
The fabric has been pre-primed with a gray ground followed by a light red ground applied below thecomposition area. The paint is applied with thin layers of transparent glazes that refine the effects of lightand the transitions into shadow, and with broader scumbles along the folds of the artist’s proper right sleeve.
No carbon-based underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at
900–1700 nanometers or in the X-radiograph.[1]A faint signature located in the lower right corner is visible in the X-radiograph but not under normal light
conditions or in infrared images.[2]The painting was cleaned and restored in 2008 and remains in a good state of preservation despite areas ofthinness and fine drying cracks through the background.[3]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Using an Indigo Systems Merlin Near Infrared camera, with a solid-state InGaAs (Indium Gallium
Arsenide) detector sensitive to wavelengths from 0.9 to 1.7 microns.
2. It may be a double signature.
3. Entry based on examination report written by Sophie Scully, graduate intern, Paintings Conservation
Department, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection