COLLIER, Edwart

This signed and dated painting shows an unidentified gentleman, three-quarter length, in a black cape, holding a glove, standing in front of a curtain. It is one of few portraits known to have been executed by Edwaert Collier, an artist best known for his vanitas still-life paintings.

This is the only recorded self-portrait by Edwart Collier, inspired by his Leiden forebear David Bailly’s Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols. The still-life arrangement, with a violin preventing a musical score from falling off the table while resting on a closed book and holding open the pages of another, in this case an early 17th century description of the city of Leiden, with a Roemer to the left and a globe behind, is one often repeated by Collier. The musical score is from Jan van Eyck’s Der Fluyten Lusthof, published in Utrecht in 1646, which is for solo flute, the instrument that the erudite Collier has placed resting upon it.

This painting is a fairly conventional, but well-conceived and well-composed, vanitas picture. The tipped over silver tazza and green-glass roemer (which with the watch recall still-lifes by Willem Claesz. Heda). The composition indicates that in his early twenties Collier had already mastered the syntax of a visual language in which earlier masters, including Pieter Claesz and Jan Davidsz de Heem, had expressed themselves.

Collier was clearly a colourful character and was married three times in the space of eleven years between 1670 and 1681. His eventful personal life renders his sombre obsession with the vanitas still-life, which he painted almost exclusively throughout his career, all the more fascinating.

Inscribed and dated lower right: vanitas/vanitaum/et omnia/vanitas/1665.

The painting depicts a still-life of court jewels in a casket, a globe, sword and a miniature portrait of Charles I, arranged upon a cloth-covered table. It is signed and dated lower right.

This vanitas still-life depicts a volume of the Bucaniers of America, a globe, books, an address to the commons, a candle, a quill, a key and a pocketwatch, all upon a table. Collier repeated this successful composition on several occasions.He included in this still-life an edition of the recently published Bucaniers of America. Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin’s Bucaniers of America was one of the most popular books of the late seventeenth-century.

This vanitas still-life represents an ink-well and quill, a candle, a box of seals, sealing wax, books and a globe on a draped table. It is a version of a successful composition which the artist repeated on many occasions.

This vanitas still-life, executed in London, depicts a candlestick, a skull, a shell, bubbles, a watch, a portrait of Charles I, and other objects on a draped table. The inscription on a piece of paper lower right reads: NEMO ANTE/MORTEM/BEATUS DICI/POTEST (“No one can be called happy before his death”).

This is an early work by Collier, painted during a period when he produced some of his finest work. He produced vanitas still-lifes throughout his career. The present version includes a candlestick, musical instruments, Dutch books, a writing set, an astrological and a terrestrial globe and an hourglass, all on a draped table. The objects signify that wealth, knowledge and power are all earthly, temporary and ultimately meaningless. The burning candle, pocket watch and hourglass denote the passage of time and brevity of life; the violin with a broken string indicates the transient pleasure of music; the money bag denotes the worldly riches, the scholarly books and globes the vanity of learning, and the military flag the worldly power. On a piece of paper at far right one can read: Vanitas/Vanitatu(m)/Et Omnia/Vanitas [Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanity], (Ecclesiastes 1:2).

Similar vanitas still-lifes by Collier dated 1662 can be found in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The composition contains standard vanitas elements: the hourglass, pocket watch, and candle that has been snuffed out (denoting the passage of time and the brevity of life); the musical instruments (the fleeting pleasure of music); and the astrological globe and scholarly books, here including Plutarch’s Lives (the vanity of learning). All represent the transience of earthly existence and the vacuity of worldly pursuits.

Collier painted vanitas still-lifes in the Leiden tradition throughout his career for both the Dutch and English markets. It is probable that this work was executed during Collier’s time in England given the Anglicised version of his signature and the inclusion of the image of Sir Anthony van Dyck, the pre-eminent court painter in early seventeenth-century England.

The present vanitas still-life is depicted with a globe, a violin and bow, lemon peel, a recorder, a musical score, an open book, an hour glass and other objects, the elements usually present in other still-lifes by the painter.

Edwart Collier painted almost exclusively vanitas still-lifes throughout his career. The present version was executed in 1694, the year after his arrival in London. It depicts an upturned lute, a globe turned to the Pacific Ocean, an open copy of Cardanus Rider’s British Merlin, and an engraving of Caesar Octavianus Augustus.

The painting is signed and dated upper right: E.Collier/ Anno 1694.