ADRIAEN COORTE (IJZENDIJKE [?] 1659 / 1664-1707 MIDDELBOURG) - photo 1
ADRIAEN COORTE (IJZENDIJKE [?] 1659 / 1664-1707 MIDDELBOURG) - photo 2
ADRIAEN COORTE (IJZENDIJKE [?] 1659 / 1664-1707 MIDDELBOURG) - photo 3

ADRIAEN COORTE (IJZENDIJKE [?] 1659 / 1664-1707 MIDDELBOURG)

Lot 23
21.11.2024 16:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
€ 600 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1336094
Lot 23 | ADRIAEN COORTE (IJZENDIJKE [?] 1659 / 1664-1707 MIDDELBOURG)
Estimate value
€ 600 000 – 1 000 000
ADRIAEN COORTE (IJZENDIJKE [?] 1659 / 1664-1707 MIDDELBOURG)
Nature morte au papillon et aux abricots, raisins, nèfle et pêche sur un entablement en pierre
signé et daté 'A Coorte / 1704' (en bas, à gauche, sur l'entablement)
huile sur toile
37 x 43,7 cm (14 ½ x 17 3/16 in.)
dans un cadre prêté par Michel Guillanton, encadreur et sculpteur sur bois (prix sur demande)




Provenance

Collection particulière, France, dans les années quatre-vingt ;
Acquis auprès de celle-ci par l'actuel propriétaire, en septembre 2002.



Further Details

ADRIAEN COORTE (1659 / 1664-1707), STILL LIFE WITH A BUTTERFLY AND APRICOTS, GRAPES, MEDLAR AND PEACH ON A STONE LEDGE, OIL ON CANVAS, SIGNED AND DATED

All the lyricism that pervades Adriaen Coorte’s (c.1683-1707) compositions stems from the simplicity of the forms that the artist employs. Unlike other painters of his day, such as Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1683/84) or Willem Kalf (1619-1693), who included an overabundance of costly objects and foodstuffs in their works, Coorte did not overload his pictures with numerous elements but limited himself to a restricted selection. The viewer's attention is thus focused on the refined rendering of each glowing grape or downy peach.

He is an artist whose life, like his work, is enigmatic. There is no definitive information on his place and date of birth, nor on the date and place of his death. However, research into the archives of the Reformed church in IJzendijke suggests that the artist was born in this small town between 1659 and 1664, the second son of Cornelis and Petronella Coorte, a well-off couple engaged in the very Dutch occupation of dyke management (see T. de Jong, H. J. Plankeei, ‘Adriaen Coorte of IJzendijke’, Oud Holland, CXXVIII, 1, 2015, p. 55). Coorte is also mentioned in the notebooks of the Guild of Saint Luke in the Dutch town of Middelbourg, and around a hundred paintings signed by him are known. It is assumed that he trained with Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636-1695) in Amsterdam between 1680 and 1683, but his mature style also shows a kinship with the works of Spanish painters of the previous generation such as Juan Sánchez Cotán (1560-1627) or Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664).

Like his compatriot Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) before him, Coorte was essentially forgotten by art lovers and critics for almost two hundred years after his death. It was not until the publication of an article in 1952 by the Dutch art historian Laurence J. Bol (1898-1994), followed by the organisation of a retrospective at the Museum of Dordrecht in 1958 and the publication of the catalogue raisonné in 1977, that the general public rediscovered the delightful intimacy of his paintings.

Painted at the end of his life, the present painting exemplifies the artist's meticulous, minimal style. Like a magician, he manipulates the golden light that floods the composition. Entering from the top left-hand corner, it highlights the geometric shapes of the fruit placed on the simple stone slab: apricots, grapes, the hidden medlar and the precariously placed peach. However, this light also seems to be imprisoned within the fruit: it illuminates the composition from the inside and is projected out from them towards the viewer. The rosy vine leaf, turned towards the source of light, and the viewer, turning their gaze towards the painting, are thus bathed in the same mystical glow.

Throughout his life, Coorte reused specific motifs in his compositions. Accordingly we find in a painting in the Mauritshuis (inv. no. 1554 - fig. 1), dated as here to 1704, the same apricots as in the present painting. Similarly, in the Still Life with Strawberries, Gooseberries and Asparagus (National Gallery, London, inv. no. NG6664 - fig. 2), the bunch of asparagus with the spear bending under the weight of the others that we see on the right of the composition is a repeat of the motif in a work now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, dated 1697 (inv. no. SK-A-2099). The same bunch of asparagus is also found in ten other paintings by the artist. Using motifs in this way is a subtle game that the artist uses to underline the creative power of the painter: under his brush, perishable goods are preserved for eternity.

The theme of the ephemeral, typical of Dutch Golden Age still lifes, is further addressed by Coorte in this painting. The butterfly, or to be more specific the cinnabar moth, has a double symbolism. For the early 18th century public, it would easily have been identified as the symbol of the risen Christ, and therefore of hope. However, by virtue of its fragility and the shortness of its life cycle, the butterfly also reminds us of the shortness of our time on earth, and encourages us to revel in beautiful things, such as the sun-drenched fruit we are offered. Like Pierre Ronsard (1524-1585), Coorte advises us: ‘Gather the roses of life today’ (‘Cueillez dès aujourd'huy les roses de la vie’).

It is important to mention the hypothesis that the present painting is the pendant to that in the National Gallery, acquired in 2017. The two works, which were in the same private French collection in the mid-twentieth century, were painted a year apart, the one in the National Gallery dating from 1703. They are the same size, and the two entablatures form a single support when placed side by side. Together, these two works create a pyramidal composition, in which the redcurrant leaf and the vine leaf stretch towards one another.
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