A Boy Blowing on a Firebrand to Light a Candle − Godfried Schalcken − S − Artists A-Z − Online Collection − Collection − National Galleries of Scotland

A Boy Blowing on a Firebrand to Light a Candle

Reference URL

Godfried Schalcken

A Boy Blowing on a Firebrand to Light a Candle about 1692 - 1698

On Display Scottish National Gallery

Night scenes like this were particularly popular amongst Dutch artists, and Schalken specialised in this subject. Although the exact meaning of the boy with a firebrand is not known today, it derived from a painting by the Italian artist Jacopo Bassano and was also enthusiastically adopted by El Greco, who incorporated the motif in his `Allegory? (NG 2419) which is also in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery. It is likely that Schalcken executed this painting for Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, while visiting Althorp during the period he spent in Britain.

Details

Acc. No. NG 2495
Medium Oil on canvas
Size 75.00 x 63.50 cm (framed: 83.20 x 78.70 x 9.50 cm)
Credit Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund 1989