Master Paintings

Master Paintings

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 25. Vanitas still life with a violin, recorders, music manuscripts, and a globe.

Property of a Distinguished Private Collector

Edwaert Collier

Vanitas still life with a violin, recorders, music manuscripts, and a globe

Lot Closed

October 21, 04:25 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property of a Distinguished Private Collector

Edwaert Collier

Breda 1642 - 1708 London

Vanitas still life with a violin, recorders, music manuscripts, and a globe


signed on musical part book lower center: E Collier

oil on canvas

canvas: 31⅝ by 24⅞ in.; 80.3 by 63.2

framed: 36 ⅞ by 31 ⅝ in.; 93.7 by 80.3 cm.

Dr. Daniel Yat Chiu Ng (1937-2013), Hong Kong;
By whose Estate Family Trust given to the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society;
By whom sold, Hong Kong, Sotheby's, 3 October 2018, lot 4;
Where acquired by the present collector.

This vanitas still life, which includes an array of musical instruments, assorted manuscripts and printed volumes, and a globe, is typical of Collier's artistic output. Though Collier's career straddled Holland and England, where he spent the latter part of his life, his production of grand still lifes remained consistent throughout.


The open book bears a pair of Latin inscriptions. Though cropped, the left page offers a moralizing message: "vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas" ("vanity of vanities, all is vanity"). The right page reads: "muisca letitiae comes medicina dolorum" ("music is a companion in pleasure and a balm in sorrow"). The pair of epigrams at once warns against the futility of life while also suggesting that solace might be found in the pursuit of music, an edifying alternative to the accumulation of worldly goods.