Wayne Franits is Distinguished Professor of Art History at Syracuse University; he specializes in seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art. His recent books include Vermeer (2015) and Godefridus Schalcken: A Dutch Painter in Late Seventeenth-century London (2018), as well as the edited volume, The Ashgate Research Companion to Dutch Art of the Seventeenth Century (2016).

The first book in English dedicated to the entire artistic output of seventeenth-century Dutch artist Godefridus Schalcken (1643-1706), this studyexamines the artist's paintings and career trajectory against the background of his ceaseless pursuit of fame and fortune.