Maria Schalcken(Made? 1645/50 – before 1700 Dordrecht)

How to cite
Libby, Alexandra. “Maria Schalcken” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artists/maria-schalcken/ (archived June2020).
A PDF of every version of this biography 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.

Little is known about the life and career of Maria Schalcken. Sister and pupil of the genre painter Godefridus
Schalcken (1643–1706), she was likely born sometime between 1645 and 1650 in Made, near
Geertruidenberg, where her brother was born. Daughter of the clergyman Cornelis Schalcken (1610–74) and
Aletta Lydius (1612–78), she presumably moved with her parents to Dordrecht in 1654 after her father became
rector of the Latin school there. In 1656 Godefridus began his apprenticeship to Samuel van Hoogstraten(1627–78) and then went to study in Leiden with Gerrit Dou (1613–75) around 1663. Although it is not certain
when Godefridus returned to Dordrecht, Maria must have begun her studies with her older brother soon
thereafter, probably around 1665.[1] In 1682 Maria married the Dordrecht merchant Severijn van Bracht(1658–after 1700), at which point she seems to have given up painting. The couple had at least one daughter,Anna (b. 1683), and a son, Cornelis (b. 1685). Maria died around 1700.
Only two paintings can be firmly attributed to Maria Schalcken, which makes an assessment of her styledifficult.[2] Nevertheless, she appears to have fully absorbed the principles of fine painting her brother taught
her. Her smooth execution and meticulous detail are the hallmark qualities of the Leiden fijnschilder tradition towhich Godefridus belonged. Like him, she concentrated on scenes of everyday life. She was purported to beso successful “that her detailed and exemplary cabinet pieces became positioned in reputable artcollections.”[3] It has been suggested that, given the strong affinities between her work and that of her brother,
she may have executed some of the paintings currently attributed to Godefridus.[4]© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Maria Schalcken
Page 2 of 3- Alexandra Libby, 2017

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Maria Schalcken
Page 3 of 3Endnotes

1. On Maria Schalcken’s biography, see Frederik J. Duparc et al., Golden: Dutch and Flemish
Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (New Haven, 2011), 279,
which incorrectly states that she was never married. See also Marloes Huiskamp,“Schalcken,Maria,”

inDigitaal

Vrouwenlexicon

vanNederland(2014).

http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/MariaSchalcken.
2. See note 8 in the entry Boy Offering Grapes to a Woman, attributed to Maria Schalcken inthis catalogue.
3. “Dat hare uitvoerige en mals geschilderde kabinetstukjes in aanzienlijke kunstverzamelingenzijn

geplaatstgeworden.”

SeeRoelandvanEijndenandAdriaan

vanderWilligen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, sedert de helft der XVIII eeuw
(Haarlem, 1816), 1: 186.
4. “Dat hare uitvoerige en mals geschilderde kabinetstukjes in aanzienlijke kunstverzamelingenzijn

geplaatstgeworden.”

SeeRoelandvanEijnden

andAdriaanvanderWilligen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, sedert de helft der XVIII eeuw
(Haarlem, 1816), 1: 186.

Literature
Van Eijnden, Roeland and Adriaan van der Willigen. Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche
schilderkunst, sedert de helft der XVIII eeuw. Haarlem, 1816, 1: 186.
Duparc, Frederik J. et al. Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie andEijk van Otterloo Collection. New Haven, 2011.
Huiskamp, Marloes. “Schalcken, Maria.” In Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. 2014.
http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/MariaSchalcken.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection