A Man Offering Gold and Coins to a Girl
- Artist: Godfried Schalcken
- Date: about 1665-70
- Medium: oil on copper
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is the "A Man Offering Gold and Coins to a Girl" by Godfried Schalcken, painted around 1665-70. It's a small painting, only about half the size of A4 paper, but it packs a big punch in terms of emotion and atmosphere.
The scene shows a man holding out gold coins and jewellery to a woman, who's lying on a bed with a pillow behind her. But what gives this away as more than just a romantic gesture is Cupid on the bedpost in the foreground - he's clearly there to remind us that we're dealing with erotic love here.
The warm glow of the candle casts a flattering light on the woman, and it's not hard to see why Schalcken was so skilled at capturing intimate moments like this. But look closer and you'll see some harder realities too: the gold in the man's hand, the expensive pearls around the woman's neck... these are the trappings of a transaction, not just a romantic gift.
It's fascinating to think about what kind of story we might be seeing here - is it a brothel scene, or a lover offering gifts? The coins seem to imply a commercial exchange, but Schalcken leaves it up to us to decide. Whatever the truth may be, this painting's all about the power dynamics at play in a relationship like this one.
See it in person
A Man Offering Gold and Coins to a Girl hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
