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Still Life with Seashells
Adriaen Coorte (Dutch, active about 1683–1707)
1698
Medium/Technique
Oil on paper on panel
Dimensions
17 x 22.5cm (6 11/16 x 8 7/8in.)
Framed: 23.5 × 27.9 cm (9 1/4 × 11 in.)
Framed: 23.5 × 27.9 cm (9 1/4 × 11 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession Number2018.2760
OUT ON LOAN
On display at High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, April 19, 2024 – July 14, 2024
On display at High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, April 19, 2024 – July 14, 2024
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
The softest sea creatures enjoy the most beautiful homes. With the expansion of international trade, unusual and colorful shells, valued for their beauty and rarity, arrived in Dutch ports from around the globe. This extraordinary still life features a variety of tropical species, all set against a black background. Coorte draws our attention to the larger shells, each with mysterious shapes and patterns. Look for the contrast between the spiraled opening of the speckled shell; the horizontal, ridged slit of the smaller beige one; and the haunting, dark cavity of the spiny skeleton shell
Provenance1806, probably Gerardus Beljard, Middelburg; October 13-16, 1806, Beljard sale, Middelburg, lot 23 [see note 1]. Colonel T. A. Samuel, London [see note 2]; March 26, 1969, Samuel sale, Sotheby's, London, lot 35, sold for £5500 to Edward Speelman (dealer), London. By 1974, Silvano Lodi (dealer), Campione d'Italia, Switzerland [see note 3]. By 1984, with Alan Jacobs Gallery, London [see note 4]. 1984 until about 1993, Adi Huber, Hailer, Germany [see note 5]. By 1993, Charles Roelofsz (dealer), Amsterdam [see note 6]; 1995, sold by Roelofsz to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA; gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession date: December 12, 2018)
NOTES:
[1] Lot 23 includes 4 paintings with "stone tables with conches and shells" by H. Coorte.
[2] According to the RKD online image database (no. 121725), Samuel had all four of the Coorte shell paintings from the Beljard sale.
[3] Advertised in The Burlington Magazine 113 (May 1974), p. LIV. According to the RKD (as above, n.1), the painting remained with Lodi until 1984.
[4] Published in Alan Jacobs Gallery Autumn/Winter 1984 exhibition Clarity in Awareness, cat. no. 24. It is not clear if the owner of the painting is Alan Jacobs Gallery or a private collection in West Germany, as is listed in the provenance.
[5] According to RKD (as above, n. 1).
[6] According to Quentin Buvelot, The Still Lifes of Adriaen Coorte, the painting was with Roelofsz from 1993 until 1995.
NOTES:
[1] Lot 23 includes 4 paintings with "stone tables with conches and shells" by H. Coorte.
[2] According to the RKD online image database (no. 121725), Samuel had all four of the Coorte shell paintings from the Beljard sale.
[3] Advertised in The Burlington Magazine 113 (May 1974), p. LIV. According to the RKD (as above, n.1), the painting remained with Lodi until 1984.
[4] Published in Alan Jacobs Gallery Autumn/Winter 1984 exhibition Clarity in Awareness, cat. no. 24. It is not clear if the owner of the painting is Alan Jacobs Gallery or a private collection in West Germany, as is listed in the provenance.
[5] According to RKD (as above, n. 1).
[6] According to Quentin Buvelot, The Still Lifes of Adriaen Coorte, the painting was with Roelofsz from 1993 until 1995.