Godefridus Schalcken: A Late 17th-century Dutch Painter in Pursuit of Fame and Fortune

Godefridus Schalcken: A Late 17th-century Dutch Painter in Pursuit of

Fame and Fortune is the first book in English dedicated to the entire

artistic output of seventeenth-century Dutch artist Godefridus Schalcken

(1643-1706). It examines the artist’s paintings and career trajectory against

the background of his ceaseless pursuit of fame and fortune. Combining a

comprehensive analysis of Schalcken’s artistic development and style with our

increasing biographical knowledge, it provides an authoritative overview of

Schalcken’s ample production as an artist. It also integrates his art into

the circumstances of his life in relation to his ambitious career

aspirations, exploring how economic conditions, a concomitantly oversaturated

art market, talent and ambition, demographics, and even sheer luck all played

a role in Schalcken’s great professional success.

Since Schalcken’s art,

like that of all Dutch painters, provides a plethora of information about

seventeenth-century culture-its predilections, its prejudices, indeed, its

very mind-set-the book inevitably links his work to the broader

socio-cultural contexts in which it was created.