The painting Lady with a Dog by Godfried Schalcken, was created between 1643-1706 in The Hauge and while there are records of provenance, it is unclear if this painting is the one that is discussed in the records, or if it was an eerily similar painting also created by Schalcken.It is unclear whether this painting or the other is the “original”, but during the last sale of this work at Sotheby’s in London, England on February 15, 1989, represented as Willem van Mieris the Elder, the notice on the sale included that this painting was in fact the original of the two.

In this genre piece, a brunette woman sits at a table with a small spaniel. The motion she is making with her index finger implies that she is playfully reprimanding the dog. Many scholars believe this was a statement about women and their control over men. While genre paintings were looked upon as an inferior form of painting, Schalcken along with an elite group of artist, lifted genre paintings into an appreciated art form.

See the following page for bibliographic references about this portrait.

 

By: Lucy Pylant