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.

Wayne Franits is Distinguished Professor of Art History at Syracuse University; he specializes in seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art. His recent books include Vermeer (2015) and Godefridus Schalcken: A Dutch Painter in Late Seventeenth-century London (2018) as well as the edited volume, The Ashgate Research Companion to Dutch Art of the Seventeenth Century (2016).