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Self-Portrait in Her Studio
Maria Schalcken (Dutch, 1645/50–before 1700)
about 1680
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
44.1 x 34.3 cm (17 3/8 x 13 1/2 in.)
Framed: 59.1 x 49.5 x 6.4 cm (23 1/4 x 19 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)
Framed: 59.1 x 49.5 x 6.4 cm (23 1/4 x 19 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession Number2019.2094
OUT ON LOAN
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
While some paintings of artists in their studios depict the moment before work begins or give a glimpse midway through the process, this picture shows a triumphant completion. Holding her palette, brushes, and a mahl stick, used to steady the painter’s arm, Schalcken looks out at us and points at her creation. This painting was once attributed to her brother and teacher, Godfried. But a cleaning revealed Maria’s signature in the upper left corner—making it clear that the picture is a self-portrait. This is one of only two known paintings by the artist.
InscriptionsMaria. Schalcken · F in left upper corner
ProvenanceThomas Theodore Cremer (b. 1743 – d. 1815), Rotterdam; April 16, 1816, Cremer estate sale, van Leen, Rotterdam, lot 104, sold for fl. 103 to L. J. Nieuwenhuys (dealer; b. 1777 – d. 1862). 1835, Johann Casper Hofbauer (b. 1771 – d. 1839), Vienna; by descent to his grandson, Josef Scharinger, Vienna [see note 1]. By 1899 until at least 1929, Adolf, Ritter von Grosser, Vienna [see note 2]. About 1930, Herman Rasch (b. 1879 – d. 1957), Stockholm [see note 3]. Arnold Trowell (b. 1887 – d. 1966), London [see note 4]. Diana Kreuger (b. 1920 – d. 1998), Château Malvande, Geneva. By 1998, Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna; 1999, sold by Galerie Sanct Lucas to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA; 2019, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 11, 2019)
NOTES:
[1] According to Theodore von Frimmel, “Das Bildnis der Malerin Maria Schlcken,” Blätter für Gemäldekunde 6 (1910), p. 92, the painting was in the Viennese Hofbauer collection before it was acquired by von Grosser. Galerie Sanct Lucas, Old Master Paintings catalogue (Vienna, 1998), cat. no. 20, adds that the painting passed from Hofbauer to Scharinger before entering the von Grosser collection.
[2] The Galerie Sanct Lucas 1998 (as above, n.1) notes the painting was in this collection in 1899. Von Grosser lent it to the Galerie Schaeffer exhibition, “Die Meister des Hollandischen Interieurs” (1929), no. 78.
[3] A label from the Herman Rasch collection is on the back of the painting. H. van Hall, Portretten van Nederlandse Beeldende Kunstenaars (Amsterdam, 1963) gives the approximate date of Rasch’s acquisition.
[4] Galerie Sanct Lucas 1998 (as above, n.1) notes that the painting was once with Arnold Frowell [sic], London. Arnold Trowell was a composer and avid art collector, especially of Dutch and English 17th and 18th century prints and paintings. In Trowell's posthumous sale, February 28, 1968, Sotheby’s, London, lot 17 is described as “E. van der Neer, Portrait of a Female Artist, seated at her easel in an interior. 17 in. by 13 in,” very possibly the present painting. For more on Trowell's collecting see Martin Griffiths, Arnold Trowell – Violoncellist, Composer and Pedagogue (Ph.D. diss., University of Waikato, 2012), pp. 126 n. 68, 134.
NOTES:
[1] According to Theodore von Frimmel, “Das Bildnis der Malerin Maria Schlcken,” Blätter für Gemäldekunde 6 (1910), p. 92, the painting was in the Viennese Hofbauer collection before it was acquired by von Grosser. Galerie Sanct Lucas, Old Master Paintings catalogue (Vienna, 1998), cat. no. 20, adds that the painting passed from Hofbauer to Scharinger before entering the von Grosser collection.
[2] The Galerie Sanct Lucas 1998 (as above, n.1) notes the painting was in this collection in 1899. Von Grosser lent it to the Galerie Schaeffer exhibition, “Die Meister des Hollandischen Interieurs” (1929), no. 78.
[3] A label from the Herman Rasch collection is on the back of the painting. H. van Hall, Portretten van Nederlandse Beeldende Kunstenaars (Amsterdam, 1963) gives the approximate date of Rasch’s acquisition.
[4] Galerie Sanct Lucas 1998 (as above, n.1) notes that the painting was once with Arnold Frowell [sic], London. Arnold Trowell was a composer and avid art collector, especially of Dutch and English 17th and 18th century prints and paintings. In Trowell's posthumous sale, February 28, 1968, Sotheby’s, London, lot 17 is described as “E. van der Neer, Portrait of a Female Artist, seated at her easel in an interior. 17 in. by 13 in,” very possibly the present painting. For more on Trowell's collecting see Martin Griffiths, Arnold Trowell – Violoncellist, Composer and Pedagogue (Ph.D. diss., University of Waikato, 2012), pp. 126 n. 68, 134.