Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell
| Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Anne Vallayer-Coster  |
| Year | 1780 |
| Medium | oil paint, canvas |
| Dimensions | 50.2 cm (19.8 in) × 38.1 cm (15.0 in) |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art |
| Accession No. | 07.225.504 |
| Identifiers | The Met object ID: 437864 |
| Website | www |
Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell is a 1780 painting, by Anne Vallayer-Coster. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1]
Early history and creation
In 1770, Vallayer-Coster joined the French Academy. Marie Antoinette was her patron.[2]
The painting was exhibited in the Salon of 1781.[3] Vallayer had started to show her flower paintings at the Salon of 1775. Denis Diderot, who had been enthusiastic about her work in the Salon of 1771,[4] gave a very different assessment in 1781 and writes of the small oval paintings of flowers and fruits that they lack the skill in drawing and brush that this type of painting requires.[5]
The painting is executed in a mix of styles, with both very fine and broad brushstrokes. Eik Kahng, in an essay comparing Vallayer-Coster's technique to Chardin's notes that the level of detail in the flowers is "almost clinically precise", but the conch shell is painted with broad unblended brush strokes. [6] Valerie Mainz, in an essay in the Dictionary of Women Artists, refers to the painting as an example of a proto-impressionist technique, resembling the use of pastel, that prefigures the flower paintings of Henri-Fantin-Latour.[7]
Later history and display
It was given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1906.[8]
References
- ^ "Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell". Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- ^ Kahng, Eik; Vallayer-Coster, Anne; Michel, Marianne Roland; Bailey, Colin B. (2002). Anne Vallayer-Coster, Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette. Dallas Museum of Art. ISBN 9780300093292.
- ^ "Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell - Anne Vallayer-Coster - 07.225.504 - Work of Art - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History". The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.
- ^ Lewis, Jo Ann (2002-07-07). "The Modest Bloom of Anne Vallayer-Coster". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
- ^ Diderot, Denis (1876). Oeuvres complètes de Diderot: Beaux-arts, pt. 3: Arts du dessin (salons). Musique (in French). Garnier.
- ^ Kahng, Eik; Vallayer-Coster, Anne; Roland Michel, Marianne; Bailey, Colin B (2002). Anne Vallayer-Coster, painter to the court of Marie-Antoinette. Dallas, TX]; New Haven: Dallas Museum of Art ; Yale University Press. ISBN 0300093292.
- ^ Gaze, Delia (1997). Dictionary of Women Artists: Artists, J-Z. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781884964213.
- ^ "Anne Vallayer-Coster - Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell - The Met". The Metropolitan Museum of Art.