VALLAYER-COSTER, Anne - b. 1744 Paris, d. 1818 Paris - WGA

VALLAYER-COSTER, Anne

(b. 1744 Paris, d. 1818 Paris)

French painter. She spent her childhood at the Gobelins, where her father was a goldsmith. Though she thus belonged to artistic circles, when received (reçue) by the Académie Royale in 1770, on presentation of the still-lifes Attributes of Painting and Musical Instruments (both Paris, Louvre), she was known to have neither a teacher nor an official patron. She managed to get some training from a well-known marine painter, Joseph Vernet, but she picked up still-life all but on her own. She entered the Royal Academy in her mid-twenties, as precocious as François Boucher had been - and one of only four women before the Revolution.

As a still-life painter she got Marie-Antoinette’s patronage. Despite her closeness to the ancien régime and France’s hated monarch, she survived decades of bloodshed and shifting tastes. In fact, one of Vallayer-Coster’s grandest works dates to the end of her life. It also reprises the motifs of her earliest art.

A Hound with Dead Game in a Landscape

This painting is a re-interpretation of a painting by Alexandre-Fran�ois Desportes, now in the Mus�e de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris.

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Attributes of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture

The old rivalry between painting and sculpture, the sister arts devoted to the imitation of nature, resurfaces in this painting. The painters had shown that, in their two-dimensional pictures, they were quite capable of offering several views of a body that was equally beautiful from all sides. What theoreticians had presented as an advantage of sculpture became a particular challenge to painting. A plaster Academy model of the antique Belvedere Torso (1st century AD, Rome, Vatican) is here rendered in paint. Like painting and sculpture, architecture was also considered an art of draughtsmanship. Inspired by Chardin, this academic still-life is devoid of all reference to the theme of vanitas that was generally present in compositions on a comparable theme by the older Dutch masters: the focus now falls upon the enlightened erudition of art.

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Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase

Anne Vallayer-Coster depicts this bouquet with great simplicity in a clear vase on a stone ledge, and one stem casually resting on the side. The soft colour harmony of pinks, whites and ochres, velvety petals and tender leaves from this floral arrangement stand out against a dark background with a subtle chiaroscuro.

The painting is signed and dated lower left: Melle Vallayer 1777.

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Portrait of a Violinist

This painting reflects the influence of the artist’s predecessor, Jean-Baptiste-Sim�on Chardin, whom she admired for his highly sensitive interpretation of art. It demonstrates a poetic and psychological approach for a portrait.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 15 minutes):

Giuseppe Tartini: Violin concerto in A Major

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Still-Life

This grand and impressive still-life depicts a bust of Minerva, armour, muskets, a drum, a standard, the baton of command of a Mar�chal de France, a laurel wreath and the orders of Saint-Louis and of the Saint-Esprit, all on a stone ledge. The painting was exhibited at the Salon of 1777 and sketched by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin in his copy of the Salon’s livret.

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Still-Life of Flowers in a Vase with a Shell

The painting is signed and dated lower right: A. Coster 1799.

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Still-Life with Musical Instruments

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Still-Life with Tuft of Marine Plants, Shells and Corals

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