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Godfried Schalcken, 'A Man Offering Gold and Coins to a Girl', about 1665-70

About the work

A man offers gold coins and jewellery to woman lying on a bed – a carving of Cupid, the god of erotic love, on the bedpost in the foreground removes any doubt that it is an amorous encounter. The glass of wine would also have been associated with licentious behaviour. Whether this is a transaction taking place in a brothel or a gift from an enamoured lover is not explicit, but the coins strongly imply that it’s a commercial exchange.

Schalcken often painted candlelit scenes and here the warm glow casts the woman in a flattering light and emphasises the softness of the pillow behind her. But it also highlights some hard, worldly realities: the gold glittering in the man’s hand, the pearls of the woman’s necklace – an expensive piece of jewellery – and the costly gold braid on her dress.

Key facts

Full title
A Candlelight Scene: A Man offering a Gold Chain and Coins to a Girl seated on a Bed
Artist
Godfried Schalcken
Artist dates
1643 - 1706
Date made
about 1665-70
Medium and support
oil on copper
Dimensions
15.5 × 18.9 cm
Inscription summary
Signed
Acquisition credit
Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876
Inventory number
NG999
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection
Previous owners
Frame
17th-century French Frame

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

More works by Godfried Schalcken

A Woman singing and a Man with a Cittern
A Woman singing and a Man with a Cittern
Godfried Schalcken
This painting sets out to tease us: we are clearly invited to wonder about the nature of the relationship between the two figures. They sit close and seem deeply comfortable in each other’s presence; there is a hint of embarrassment in the young woman’s reaction to our gaze. She looks up slightly...
Not on display
Allegory of Virtue and Riches
Allegory of Virtue and Riches
Godfried Schalcken
A small, beady-eyed sparrow on one side of a set of scales heavily outweighs the gold and pearls which a weeping woman, two tears glistening on her cheeks, places in the other. Clearly, in the real word, this couldn't happen: the bird would be much the lighter than the jewellery. But this picture...
Not on display
An Old Woman scouring a Pot
An Old Woman scouring a Pot
Godfried Schalcken
This painting evokes a sense of the calm and simplicity of everyday routine and of the virtue of labour as the old woman absorbs herself in polishing the glowing brass of a large pan. But other objects on the sill give her scouring a different, darker significance and clearly identify the picture...
Not on display