Godefridus Schalcken

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.