Schalcke studied under Samuel van Hoogstraten in Dordrecht before he moved to Leiden, into the studio of Gerard Dou (1613–1675), one of Rembrandt's most famous pupils.

[citation needed] Schalcken painted several portraits, of which the half-length of William III of England, now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, is a good example.

[1] Like Dou, Schalcken specialized in small scenes lit by candlelight, a format favored by the Leiden fijnschilders.

[1] His painting, Lady, Come into the Garden (Buckingham Palace), was singled out by Schalcken's pupil and Dutch artistic biographer Arnold Houbraken as representative of his oeuvre.

[2] The atmospheric work of Schalcken provided the inspiration for Sheridan Le Fanu's gothic horror story "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter", which was adapted as Schalcken the Painter, and broadcast by the BBC on 23 December 1979 as part of its Omnibus series.