© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman
Page 2 of 8Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman
Attributed to Maria Schalcken(Made 1643 – 1706 The Hague)ca. 1675–82
oil on panel
35.6 x 26.7 cm
signed, upper left: “Schalcken . F.”
GS-113

How to cite
Jansen, Guido. “Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited
by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-boy-offering-grapesto-a-woman/ (archived May 2020).
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

Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman
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This painting, which has always been attributed to Godefridus Schalken

Comparative Figures(1643–1706), shows a young woman in sumptuous dress, sitting in front of ared curtain and seen from the knees upward. In her left hand she holds aclosed fan, while reaching out with her right hand toward a bunch of grapes
in a large wicker basket filled with white, red and blue bunches of thisdelicacy, which a boy offers her. In the right background is a view of a walled
garden with an impressive fountain and tall trees, beyond which highmountains rise. The signature “Schalcken . F” at the upper left appears in apiece of blue sky where the curtain sags. Not only is this a rather unusual
place for Godefridus Schalcken to have put his signature, but the absence of
his first initial, G, is certainly uncommon.
A comparison of this painting with works considered typical of Schalcken
reveals additional anomalies. The detailing of the woman’s clothing andFig 1. Maria Schalcken, SelfPortrait at the Easel, 1662–99, oilon panel, 39.6 × 31.6 cm, Eijk andRose-Marie van Otterloo
Collection

particularly the wicker basket is somewhat hard and lacks the soft touch weexpect to see from this master. The anatomy of the boy’s head is not entirely
correct, and a background landscape with a mountainous vista appears
nowhere else in Schalcken’s oeuvre. The painting therefore seems to havebeen produced in Schalcken’s studio by a pupil or an assistant.
The attribution of the painting can be pinpointed more exactly thanks to thecapital F in the signature. This signature, as well as its placement, is identicalto that on Maria Schalcken’s Self-Portrait at the Easel, now in the Van
Otterloo collection (fig 1). Though Godefridus occasionally placed an F after
his name as an abbreviation for fecit, he did so using a small S-like letter. OnSelf-Portrait at the Easel, not only did Maria sign her name in full, but she
also wrote the same capital F we find on the present painting. The space infront of the signature on Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman is, moreover,large enough to have accommodated Maria’s Christian name. Thus it isreasonable to assume that it was not Godefridus, but rather Maria—his sisterand pupil (and junior by several years)—who painted Boy Offering Grapes toa Woman, even if her brushstrokes are somewhat broader and lessaccomplished than in her Self-Portrait at the Easel. The absence of Maria’s
Christian name in the signature could then be blamed on a former owner,who evidently thought it might prove more profitable to let it pass for a workby Godefridus.
Maria Schalcken presumably studied with her brother from 1665 to 1670,
after he had completed his training in Gerrit Dou’s studio and returned from
Leiden to Dordrecht, where he moved back in with his parents in the© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman
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Nieuwstraat (see GS-101). She thus became Godefridus’s first pupil(see GS-106). A century and a half ago, her work had already been
described by Immerzeel as rare. Her painting career cannot have lasted verylong, and she would never have had to paint for a living. It is likely that after
her marriage in 1682 to the Dordrecht merchant Severijn van Bracht (b.
1658), she never touched her brushes again, because one year later she
gave birth to a daughter, Anna, and in 1685 to a son, Cornelis. Van Bracht
had his banns read again in July 1700, so by then he must have been awidower and Maria must have died some time before that. Therefore,Maria’s painting activities should be placed mainly in the 1670s.
In addition to Self-Portrait at the Easel, there is one other known painting by
Maria’s hand, Interior with a Young Lady Seated, Powdering Her Hair, asmall panel documented in 1979 in the London art trade. Furthermore, there
are a number of listings of paintings by her in old sale catalogues. Theserefer to two genre pieces, Woman at Her Toilet, Eating Comfits (EenVrouwtje dat voor haar Toilet sit Confituuren eetende) and Drunken Woman
and a Young Boy in a Room (Een dronk Wyf en een Jongetje in eenVertreki), as well as the aforementioned Young Lady Seated.

- Guido Jansen, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman
Page 5 of 8Endnotes

1. Frederik 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) (New Haven, 2011), 279–81, no.
57, with outdated biographical information. For a more up-to-date biography of Maria, see theonline note by Marloes Huiskamp.
2. Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), nos. 104, 130, 131, and 149. According
to Beherman, the signature on his no. 4, the Holy Family in Frankfurt, is followed by a capitalF, but illustration no. 457 in Mirjam Neumeister and Leon Krempel, Holländische Gemälde imStädel 1550–1800, 3 vols. (Petersburg, 2005), 3: 408, shows it to be a lowercase F.
According to the RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institutefor Art History) website, Schalcken’s Self-Portrait, now in the Dordrechts Museum (RKD(Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History)
kunstwerkno. 13042), bears a capital F, but in this case, too, Schalcken in fact used the small
s-like letter F. As far as I could discover, these are the only instances in which Schalcken
signed his work with an F after his name.
3. Cornelis Schalcken (1610–74) and Aletta Lydius (1612–after 1674) married in Heusden in
1636 and would have eight children: Balthasar (1637–79), Anna (1638–80), Godefridus(1643–1706), Maria (ca. 1645–before 1700), Cornelis (ca. 1650–1709), Aletta (1654–1700),
Barbara (ca. 1655–1709), and Johannes (1660–1724).
4. Johannes Immerzeel, De levens en werken der hollandsche en vlaamschkunstschilders,
beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters, van het begin der vijftiende eeuw tot heden…, 3vols. (Amsterdam, 1842–43), 3: 59.
5. Maria and Severijn had their banns read on 26 July 1682, which means that the marriage
must have taken place several weeks later. Gemeentearchief Dordrecht (now the RegionaalArchief Dordrecht), ONA 20.243 (unnumbered). This date is not provided in the online note byMarloes Huiskamp.
6. Professor Peter Klein, who subjected the current painting to dendrochronological examinationin July 2012, came to the conclusion that “an earliest felling date can be derived for the year
1640. . . . With a minimum of 2 years for seasoning an earliest creation of the painting ispossible from 1642 upwards. Under the assumption of a median of 17 sapwood rings and 2years for seasoning a creation is plausible from 1652 upwards.” Apparently it was more than
20 years before the panel was actually put to use.
7. Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), 47 (ill.). Royal Academy of Arts,
Trafalgar Galleries at the Royal Academy II (exh. cat London, Trafalgar Galleries at the Royal© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman
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Academy of Arts) (London, 1979), 46–47, with color illustration; oil on panel, 36.2 x 26.2 cm.
The work is signed in full “Maria . Schalcken . F .” in the lower left-hand corner, exactly as onher Self-Portrait.
8. The woman eating comfits (oil on panel, approx. 50 x 40 cm) was first recorded at the sale in
The Hague of the collection of Seger Tierens, 23 July 1743 (lot 167); on 21 May 1790 thepiece was put up for auction again in The Hague (lot 165); RKD (Rijksbureau voor
Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History) excerpts nos. 1483885
and 1483896. The drunken woman on a panel of approximately the same dimensions firstsurfaced at the sale on 7 November 1768 in Dordrecht (lot 7) and was later included in thesale of the Cornelis van Heemskerck collection, which was held on 18 November 1783 in TheHague (lot 13). It subsequently belonged to the Jacques Bergeon collection, which wasauctioned off on 4 November 1789 in The Hague (lot 59); RKD (Rijksbureau voor
Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History) excerpts nos. 1483891,1483894, and 1483892, all with much more detailed descriptions of the painting than the one
given in the 1768 catalogue. The portrait of a young girl (oil on panel, 28 x 21 cm) was part ofthe collection of Count F. de Robiano, which was sold in Brussels on 1 May 1837 (lot 594).
The same painting was described in detail in July 1922 by Hofstede de Groot, who also notedthat an attempt had been made to pass it off as the work of Godefridus; RKD (Rijksbureauvoor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for Art History) excerpts nos.
1483888 and 1483895.

ProvenancePossibly Arthur Kay, Glasgow (his sale, Christie’s, London, 11 May 1911, no. 224 [to Roosfor £12, 12 s.], as by Godefridus Schalcken).[1]Private collection.
(Sale, Sotheby’s, Monaco, 2 December 1989, no. 319, [for 721,500 francs] as by GodefridusSchalcken [Richard Green Fine Paintings, London, 1992]; sale, Christie’s, London, 23 April
1993, no. 8, as by Godefridus Schalcken).
Dr. Hinrich Bischoff, Bremen and Berlin, until 2005, as by Godefridus Schalcken [onconsignment with Galerie Heide Hübner, Würzburg, June 1993–March 1994; on consignment
with Klaus Edel, Cologne and London, 1995]; (sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 15 June 2006, asby Godefridus Schalcken).
From whom acquired by the present owner.

Provenance Notes© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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1. The sale of Arthur Kay’s collection in 1911 included A Boy and Girl, with a Dish of Fruit, oil oncanvas, 41.9 x 33 cm. Hofstede de Groot subsequently included this listing in his entry.
However, the Leiden Collection work is on panel and measures 35.6 x 26.7 cm. It is possiblethat the Arthur Kay painting represents an unknown prototype or variant by Godefridus
Schalcken.

Exhibition History
Washington, D.C., The National Museum of Women in the Arts, on loan with the permanentcollection, 1 August 2018–10 October 2019 [lent by the present owner].
Washington, D.C., The National Museum of Women in the Arts, “Woman Artists of the Dutch
Golden Age,” 11 October 2019–5 January 2020 [lent by the present owner].
Washington, D.C., The National Museum of Women in the Arts, on loan with the permanentcollection, 6 January–31 July 2020 [lent by the present owner].

References
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,
1907–28. Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke, 5: 358, no. 169a, as by Godefridus
Schalcken. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritischesVerzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10
vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Hübner, Heide. “Junge Frau mit Pagen.” In Alte Meister. Old Master Paintings. Kunsthandel
Heide Hübner. Sales cat. Galerie Heide Hübner, Würzburg, 1993, 18–19, as by Godefridus
Schalcken.

Technical Summary
The support is a single oak board from Western Germany or the Netherlands.
Dendrochronological analysis indicates an earliest-possible creation date of 1642, with a moreplausible date of 1652 onward.[1] The panel retains its original beveled back and measures about
one half inch at the thickest point. On the reverse are two labels, two wax seals, and an inscription
in black that reads “DxDx.” The panel, with the grain oriented vertically, has a mild convex warp.
The edges do not appear to have been trimmed.[2]© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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The panel was prepared with an off-white ground, followed by a brick-red colored priming layer.[3]Examination with infrared reflectography did not reveal any underdrawing.[4]The paint was applied with softly blended brushstrokes, allowing the artist to distinguish between
textures. Impastoed paint was employed sparingly to emphasize details such as the woven basket
bearing the grapes and the white ruffles of the woman’s dress. A warm brown underpaint wasused to sketch thinly in some areas of the initial composition beneath the body color. There is asmall pentimento above the woman’s head that relates to a change in her head covering.[5]The painting is generally in excellent condition. There is some minor craquelure in the dark brown
passages, revealing the red priming below. There are also some vertical cracks, following thegrain of the wood, that appear raised in raking light but are stable.[6]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. Wood identification and dendrochronological analysis completed by Peter Klein, Hamburg
University, 23 July 2018. “The youngest heartwood ring was formed out in the year 1633.
Regarding the sapwood statistic of Western Europe an earliest felling date can be derived forthe year 1640, more plausible is a felling date between 1640 [and] 1650 [or] 1656 + x. With aminimum of two years for seasoning an earliest creation of the painting is possible from 1642
upwards. Under the assumption of a median of seventeen sapwood rings and two years forseasoning a creation is plausible from 1652 upwards.”
2. It is difficult to confirm, as 3/8-inch-thick wood strips have been tacked onto all four edges.
3. There may be a thin light gray priming layer between the white ground and the red layer.
4. The painting was scanned using a Merlin Indigo InGaAs near-infrared camera with aStingRay macro lens customized for the wavelengths covered by the camera, 0.9 to 1.7
microns, July 2018.
5. This is only somewhat apparent in normal viewing conditions.
6. Entry based on a 2018 examination report by Sophie Scully, Paintings Conservation
Department, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

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