Young Man and Woman Studying aStatue of Venus, by Lamplightca. 1688–92

Godefridus Schalcken(Made 1643 – 1706 The Hague)

43.8 x 34.9 cm

oil on canvas
signed faintly lower right on the base of thestatue: “G. Schalcken”
GS-103Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing© 2017 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." In The Leiden
Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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In this engaging and atmospheric picture, a young man is shown wearing aComparative Figures

painter’s beret and holding a drawing in his left hand that displays thecontours of the plaster or marble statue of a kneeling nude woman in frontof him. He points to this statue with his right hand while looking up at theyoung woman standing next to him, to whom he apparently explains thedrawing and the statue. A copper oil lamp illuminates the scene, which isclosed 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 so-called Juno Cesi.[1] Godefridus Schalcken might havebeen familiar with the actual antique statue of the kneeling Venus (orAphrodite), or he might have owned a plaster cast of it. He could also have
known of this fragment through an engraving by Jan de Bisschop(1628–1671), which De Bisschop based on a drawing by the Roman artist
Franceso Salviati (1510–63). Bisschop published this drawing in hisSignorum veterum icones of 1671 (fig 1).[2]Fig 1. Jan de Bisschop afterFrancesco Salviati, Crouching
Aphrodite, engraving, plate 77 in
his Signorum veterum icones(Hagae-Comitis, 1671)

Because of its subject—the viewing of art—the painting has previously
been interpreted mainly in the context of art theory. Young painters, who
had to study antique sculptures before progressing to drawing from a livemodel,[3] were advised to draw such sculptures by artificial light; thisapproach 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 theFig 2. Godefridus Schalcken,
Allegory of the Treaty ofNijmegen, ca. 1688–92, oil oncanvas, 66 x 82 cm, Museum Het
Valkhof, Nijmegen, 1980.12

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-colored surface and the softly-lit
figures—are beautifully rendered and quite evocative.
The presence of lamplight may also allude to studious diligence anddedication—a figurative illumination, or enlightenment, resulting from thetrue artist’s rigorous training. Schnackenburg, a strong proponent of thisview, considers the entire painting to be exemplary of a new stylistic andthematic direction in Schalcken’s art, in which he examines Bisschop’s
ideas and ponders classicist thought.[4] Crucial to this interpretation is theidentification of the young man in the painting as Schalcken
himself.[5] Schnackenburg also attaches great importance to the presence

Fig 3. François de Poilly, Thesisof Louis-Nicolas and Louis© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
Page 4 of 10of the statue of Venus, which in her eyes refers to the rivalry between
painting and sculpture.[6]Francis Le Tellier, 1684,engraving, 121 x 82.5 cm,Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Est.
AA-6

The presence of the statue of Venus is clearly significant, but it has less todo with the many art-theoretical notions attached to the figure than to herrole as the goddess of love for the ancient Greeks and Romans alike. Herethe subject chiefly involves the love presumed to exist between the young
man and the young woman, for which the magnificently spotlighted statueof Venus serves as a catalyst. The amorous context depicted here fits inperfectly with the main themes found in Schalcken’s oeuvre, which is filledwith references to the kindling of love between two people. The multiple
layers of meaning that can be found in this composition make it clear that
Schalcken gave great thought to his subjects, an observation previouslymade by Hecht.[7]Beherman dated this small work to between 1680 and 1685, owing to hisidentification of the protagonists as the painter and his young wife,
Françoisia van Diemen, who married in 1679. The dating of Schalcken’sFig 4. Godefridus Schalcken,
Portrait of a Lady, Bust-Length, ina Black Dress with White Lace
Trim, Here Identified as
Françoisia van Diemen, theArtist’s Wife, 1692–96, oil oncopper, 9 x 7.4 cm, oval, PrivateCollection, © Dordrechts
Museum/ Marco de Noodgenre and history paintings is often problematic because we know only ahandful of dated genre scenes and half a dozen dated history paintings,
which mainly stem from his later years (see GS-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 mostfrequently used format of approximately 44 by 34.9 cm—is painted oncanvas. At that stage in his career he would have been more likely toexecute paintings of this size on panel, or occasionally on copper (see, forexample, GS-102). Moreover, the dry, thin manner of painting and the useof pastel hues, evident here in the figures’ pink lips, also differ from theworks painted around 1680.
Stylistically, Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by
Lamplight is closely related to Schalcken’s Allegory of the Treaty ofNijmegen (fig 2).[9] Beherman dated this latter painting, of a size rather
large for Schalcken, to around 1676–77, largely because the FrenchFig 5. Gerrit Dou, A Young ArtistDrawing by Lamplight, ca.
1650–55, oil on panel, 29 x 23.5cm, Musées royaux des BeauxArts de Belgique, Brussels, inv.
86, © Royal Museums of Fine
Arts of Belgium, Brussels / photo:
J. Geleyns – Ro scanpainter Henri Gascard (1635–1701) produced a thematically similar work
depicting The Signing of the Treaty of Nijmegen between France andSpain 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 Treaty of Nijmegen , with its thin application of paint and© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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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 French engraving published inParis by François de Poilly (1623–93) in 1684 (fig 3).[11] Young Man andWoman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight should, therefore, bedated to the same period, from around 1688 to 1692. This later dating
immediately calls into question the identification of the young artist and hispupil as Schalcken and his wife. Moreover, a small, recently discovered
portrait of Françoisia reveals that in these years, having given birth to eightchildren, she no longer looked as she did in the first year of her marriage(fig 4).[12]The influence of Schalcken’s teacher Gerrit Dou (1613–75) is still present
to a remarkable degree in this late painting. Dou painted a large number ofworks portraying an artist, mostly himself, sometimes working in his studio
but always wearing a painter’s cap.[13] Occasionally the artist is showndrawing a statue by the light of an oil lamp, as in An Artist Drawing inBrussels (fig 5), which is the work most closely related in subject toYoung
Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight.[14]-Guido Jansen© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
Page 6 of 10Endnotes
1. Sophie Schnackenburg, “‘Studium’ und ‘Inspiratio’: Godfried Schalcken’s Gemälde‘Kunstbetrachtung bei Lampenlicht’ (um 1680/85) im Spannungsfeld ikonographischerTradition und zeitgenössischer Kunsttheorie,” Müncher Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst 54(2003): 183.
2. J. G. van Gelder and Ingrid Jost,Jan de Bisschop and His Icones & Paradigmata: Classical
Antiquities and Italian Drawings for Artistic Instruction in Seventeenth-Century Holland(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, inWettstreit der Künste: Malerei und Skulptur von Dürer bis Daumier , ed. Ekkehard Mai andKurt Wettengl (Exh. cat. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-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).
5. This identification was first published in Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris,1988). See also Sophie Schnackenburg, “‘Studium’ und ‘Inspiratio’: Godfried Schalcken’s
Gemälde‘Kunstbetrachtungbei

Lampenlicht’(um1680/85)

im

Spannungsfeld

ikonographischer Tradition und zeitgenössischer Kunsttheorie,” Müncher Jahrbuch derBildenden 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‘Kunstbetrachtungbei

Lampenlicht’(um1680/85)

imSpannungsfeld

ikonographischer Tradition und zeitgenössischer Kunsttheorie,” Müncher Jahrbuch derBildenden Kunst 54 (2003), see also Peter 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, De
Hollandse fijnschilders: Van Gerard Dou tot Adriaen van der Werff (Exh. cat. Amsterdam,Rijksmuseum) (Maarssen and The Hague, 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 thesmall painting of 1692 in Toronto; see entry GS-112, fig. 1. The history paintings date from© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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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 Vrede van Nijmegen (1678–1978) (Nijmegen, 1978), 59–64 withillustrations.
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; JoséLothe, L’oeuvre gravé de François et Nicolas de Poilly d’Abbeville, graveurs parisiens duXVIIe 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 ofConstance (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin) was taken to Paris by Van der Bruggen, whonever paid for it. This gave rise to a number of legal entanglements that occurred between
1688 and 1691; Peter Hecht, De Hollandse fijnschilders: Van Gerard Dou tot Adriaen vander Werff (Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Maarssen and The Hague, 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 Nicolas de 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 anonymouslady 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 and the present author identified the sitter as
the wife of the painter on the basis of her portrait of 1706; Thierry Beherman,GodfriedSchalcken (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 hewould not have 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, 2000–1) (New Haven, 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.

© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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Provenance
Private collection (sale, Christie’s, London, 18 April 1832, no. 57) [£2.2 to Pennell].
Giles Sebright, Bart (his sale, Christie’s, London, 2 July 1937, no. 130).
Private collection (sale, Christie’s, London, 4 March 1938, no. 66).
[Galerie Lingenauber, Düsseldorf, by 1988, unpaginated, with ill.].
[Galerie Edel, Cologne, 1988].
Private collection (sale, Hampel Fine Art Auctions, 8 December 2006, no. 310).
[Salomon Lilian B. V., 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 undSkulptur 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, “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 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from TheLeiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Beherman, Thierry. Godfried Schalcken. Paris, 1988, 150–51, no. 54.
Marijnissen, Peter, De Paus, Wim, Schoon, Peter and Schweitzer, George, eds. De
Zichtbaere Werelt: Schilderkunst uit de Gouden Eeuw in Hollands oudste stad . Exh. cat.
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Zwolle, 1992, 267, no. 72.
© 2017 The Leiden CollectionYoung Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
Page 9 of 10Mai, Ekkehard. Das Kabinett des Sammlers: Gem älde vom XV. bis XVIII . Jahrhundert.
Cologne, 1993, 226–28, no. 90.
Mai, Ekkehard and Wettengl, Kurt. Wettstreit der Künste: Malerei und Skulptur von Dürer
bisDaumier.

Exh.

cat.

Cologne,Wallraf-Richartz-Museum,FondationCorboud.

Wolfratshausen, 2002, 331, no. 121.
Neumeister, Mirjam. Das Nachtstück mit Kunstlicht in der niederländischen Malerei undGraphik 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 ikonographischerTradition 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 and London, 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. Exh. cat.
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Stuttgart, 2015, 81–84.
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. Exh.
cat. Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Stuttgart, 2015,
122–24, no. 14.

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 primedfabric. There is one paper label but no wax collection seals, stencils, or import stamps along thelining or stretcher.
The fabric has been pre-primed with a gray ground followed by a light red ground applied below
the composition area. The paint is applied with thin layers of transparent glazes that refine theeffects of light and the transitions into shadow, and with broader scumbles along the folds of theartist’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 undernormal light conditions or in infrared images.[2]The painting was cleaned and restored in 2008 and remains in a good state of preservation© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Young Man and Woman Studying a Statue of Venus, by Lamplight
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despite areas of thinness 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 (IndiumGallium 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.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection