- 149
Edwart Collier Breda, active before 1663 - 1708 Leiden (?)
Description
- Edwaert Collier
- A still life of peaches and grapes in a blue and white bowl, together with a nautilus-shell cup with silver gilt mounts, a roemer, a lobster and an apple on a table draped with a cloth
- signed l.l.: E. Kollier
- oil on canvas
- 61.5 by 50cm.; 24 1/4 by 19 3/4 in.
Provenance
Possibly William, 1st Earl of Pomfret, and included in the sale of paintings, London 1-9th March 1758, as lot 10, as 'Still life, lobster etc' attributed to Roestraet
Literature
F 1910, p. 9, as by E. Balice, 'Fruit, lobster and shell tankard', and hanging in the Gallery
Catalogue Note
Collier was probably born in Leiden but trained in Haarlem; his early works show the influence of Pieter Claesz. and Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne. He was registered as a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1667-80 and was recorded living in Amsterdam until his departure for London in May 1693 where he developed a successful career specialising particularly in trompe l’oeil and vanitas still life paintings.
The present painting must date from Collier’s earlier years when he combines the best monochrome traditions of the Haarlem school together here with the more colourful conception associated with Abraham van Beyeren and Jan Davidsz. de Heem. This is a rare example from this period and can be compared to his Still life of Oysters, a Roemer and Grapes, signed 1661, in a private collection in Wassenaar (see: N.R.A. Vroom, A Modest Message as initimated by the painters of the ‘Monochrome Banketjje’, 1980, p.136, fig.179).
We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in The Hague, who has studied images of the painting, for confirming the attribution and for pointing out that the detailed, almost graphic handling, particularly of the nautilus cup and knife handle, are firmly in keeping with his early work. The format of the signature is also noteworthy: Two vanitas still lifes, one sold Christie’s, New York, 25 May 1999, lot 10, was signed and dated: 1662/EDWAERDVS./KOLLIER, and another sold Sotheby’s, New York, 24 January, 2002, lot 168a was signed and dated: E.KOLLIER. Aº1662.
Fred G. Meijer confirms, there are a few other Collier signatures with a K, all early works from before 1664. He is of the opinion that the present painting can be dated to 1662-1664.