Woman Selling Herrings

Godfried Schalcken, a pupil of Gerrit Dou and the most celebrated Leiden fine painter of his generation, built his reputation on candlelit scenes of everyday life. Woman Selling Herrings dates from the 1670s, the decade in which Schalcken’s small-scale market and domestic subjects, rendered with the meticulous finish of the fijnschilders, found eager collectors across Europe.