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'''Anne Vallayer-Coster''' (21 December 1744 &ndash; 28 February 1818) was a major 18th-century French painter best known for [[still life]]s. She achieved fame and recognition very early in her career, being admitted to the [[Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture]] in 1770, at the age of twenty-six.<ref name="McKinven 2002">McKinven 2002</ref>
'''Anne Vallayer-Coster''' (21 December 1744 &ndash; 28 February 1818) was a major 18th-century French painter best known for [[still life]]s. She achieved fame and recognition very early in her career, being admitted to the [[Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture]] in 1770, at the age of twenty-six.<ref name="McKinven 2002">McKinven 2002</ref>


Despite the low status that still life painting had at this time, Vallayer-Coster’s highly developed skills, especially in the depiction of flowers, soon generated a great deal of attention from collectors and other artists.<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> Her “precocious talent and the rave reviews” earned her the attention of the court, where [[Marie Antoinette]] took a particular interest in Vallayer-Coster's paintings.<ref name="McKinven 2002" />
Despite the low status that still life painting had at this time, Vallayer-Coster's highly developed skills, especially in the depiction of flowers, soon generated a great deal of attention from collectors and other artists.<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> Her "precocious talent and the rave reviews" earned her the attention of the court, where [[Marie Antoinette]] took a particular interest in Vallayer-Coster's paintings.<ref name="McKinven 2002" />


Her life was determinedly private, dignified and hard-working. She survived the bloodshed of the [[Reign of Terror]],<ref name="Haber 2003">Haber 2003</ref> but the fall of the French monarchy, who were her primary patrons, caused her reputation to decline.
Her life was determinedly private, dignified and hard-working. She survived the bloodshed of the [[Reign of Terror]],<ref name="Haber 2003">Haber 2003</ref> but the fall of the French monarchy, who were her primary patrons, caused her reputation to decline.
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Along with her ''Attributes of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture'' and ''Attributes of Music'' paintings, nine more of Vallayer-Coster's paintings, some of which had previously been submitted to the academicians, were displayed in the Salon exhibit of 1771. Commenting on the Salon exhibit of 1771, the encyclopedist [[Denis Diderot]] noted that "if all new members of the Royal Academy made a showing like Mademoiselle Vallayer's, and sustained the same high level of quality, the Salon would look very different!"<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> Though she is known for still life paintings in this period, her portraiture grew in popularity, and her 1773 ''[[Portrait of a Violinist]]'' was purchased by the [[Nationalmuseum|National Museum]] in 2015.
Along with her ''Attributes of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture'' and ''Attributes of Music'' paintings, nine more of Vallayer-Coster's paintings, some of which had previously been submitted to the academicians, were displayed in the Salon exhibit of 1771. Commenting on the Salon exhibit of 1771, the encyclopedist [[Denis Diderot]] noted that "if all new members of the Royal Academy made a showing like Mademoiselle Vallayer's, and sustained the same high level of quality, the Salon would look very different!"<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> Though she is known for still life paintings in this period, her portraiture grew in popularity, and her 1773 ''[[Portrait of a Violinist]]'' was purchased by the [[Nationalmuseum|National Museum]] in 2015.


Vallayer-Coster exhibited her first floral still life in 1775, and subsequently became known especially as a painter of flowers.<ref>Michel, ''Oxford Art Online''</ref> Four years later, she began to enjoy the patronage of [[Marie Antoinette]].<ref name="Doy 2005, p. 33">Doy 2005, p. 33</ref> With her Court connections and pressure from Marie Antoinette, she received space in the [[Louvre]] in 1781 which was unusual for women artists.<ref name="Doy 2005, p. 33" /> Shortly thereafter, in the presence of Marie Antoinette at the courts of [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]], she married [[Jean-Pierre Silvestre Coster]] (1745—1824), a wealthy lawyer, ''parlementaire'', and respected member of a powerful family from [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]]. Marie Antoinette signed the marriage contract as witness.<ref name="Greer 2001, p. 247" /><ref name="Doy 2005, p. 33" /> With these titles came the very highest ranks of the [[bourgeoisie]]s, the [[noblesse de robe]]. With such a prestigious title came a state office which, traditionally during this time was bought from father to son, making them almost indistinguishable from the old nobility.<ref name="Doy 2005, p. 33" />
Vallayer-Coster exhibited her first floral still life in 1775, and subsequently became known especially as a painter of flowers.<ref>Michel, ''Oxford Art Online''</ref> Four years later, she began to enjoy the patronage of [[Marie Antoinette]].<ref name="Doy 2005, p. 33">Doy 2005, p. 33</ref> With her Court connections and pressure from Marie Antoinette, she received space in the [[Louvre]] in 1781 which was unusual for women artists.<ref name="Doy 2005, p. 33" /> Shortly thereafter, in the presence of Marie Antoinette at the courts of [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]], she married [[Jean-Pierre Silvestre Coster]] (1745–1824), a wealthy lawyer, ''parlementaire'', and respected member of a powerful family from [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]]. Marie Antoinette signed the marriage contract as witness.<ref name="Greer 2001, p. 247" /><ref name="Doy 2005, p. 33" /> With these titles came the very highest ranks of the [[bourgeoisie]]s, the [[noblesse de robe]]. With such a prestigious title came a state office which, traditionally during this time was bought from father to son, making them almost indistinguishable from the old nobility.<ref name="Doy 2005, p. 33" />


=== Career Recognition ===
=== Career Recognition ===
She received early recognition of her career after being elected as an associate and a full member of the Royal Académie in 1770. Her strategies in initiating and sustaining her professional career were brilliant. She was exceptional in achieving membership in the Academy and succeeding in a prominent, professional career late in the 18th century, when resistance to women in the [[public sphere]] was deepening and the Académie was as resistant as ever to welcoming women into its ranks.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i">Michel 1960, p. i</ref>
She received early recognition of her career after being elected as an associate and a full member of the Royal Académie in 1770. Her strategies in initiating and sustaining her professional career were brilliant. She was exceptional in achieving membership in the academy and succeeding in a prominent, professional career late in the 18th century, when resistance to women in the [[public sphere]] was deepening and the Académie was as resistant as ever to welcoming women into its ranks.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i">Michel 1960, p. i</ref>
A common image of Vallayer-Coster was not only as a virtuous artist but as a skilful diplomat and negotiator, sharply aware both of her potential patrons' interests and of her own unusual position as a prominent woman artist.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" />
A common image of Vallayer-Coster was not only as a virtuous artist but as a skilful diplomat and negotiator, sharply aware both of her potential patrons' interests and of her own unusual position as a prominent woman artist.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" />


===Later years===
===Later years===
With the [[Reign of Terror]] in 1793, the ancient regime, which up to this point had supported Vallayer-Coster, disappeared.<ref name="ReferenceA">"Woman painter rescued from obscurity.” 2003</ref> Despite her noble status and her connection to the throne, Vallayer-Coster was able to avoid the pandemonium of the [[French Revolution]] in 1789,<ref name="Greer 2001, p. 247" /> but the fall of the [[French monarchy]] affected her career. There is evidence that during this period of decline in Vallayer-Coster's career, she worked for the Gobelins Tapestry factory as a means to continue her artistic endeavors.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" /> Although during [[Napoléon]]'s reign, the [[empress Josephine]] acquired two works from her in 1804, her reputation was diminished.<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> Vallayer-Coster concentrated on floral paintings in oil, watercolor and gouache.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. ii">Michel 1960, p. ii</ref>
With the [[Reign of Terror]] in 1793, the ancient regime, which up to this point had supported Vallayer-Coster, disappeared.<ref name="ReferenceA">"Woman painter rescued from obscurity." 2003</ref> Despite her noble status and her connection to the throne, Vallayer-Coster was able to avoid the pandemonium of the [[French Revolution]] in 1789,<ref name="Greer 2001, p. 247" /> but the fall of the [[French monarchy]] affected her career. There is evidence that during this period of decline in Vallayer-Coster's career, she worked for the Gobelins Tapestry factory as a means to continue her artistic endeavors.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" /> Although during [[Napoléon]]'s reign, the [[empress Josephine]] acquired two works from her in 1804, her reputation was diminished.<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> Vallayer-Coster concentrated on floral paintings in oil, watercolor and gouache.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. ii">Michel 1960, p. ii</ref>


In 1817 she exhibited ''Still Life with Lobster'' in the [[Paris Salon]].<ref name="ReferenceA" /> In this, her last exhibited painting, she managed what an expert called "a summation of her career"<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> depicting most of her previous subjects together in a work she donated to the restored [[King Louis XVIII]]. There is some evidence that Vallayer-Coster gave it to the king as an expression of her joy as a loyal [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] supporter through the turbulent years of the Revolution and Napoleonic imperialism.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
In 1817 she exhibited ''Still Life with Lobster'' in the [[Paris Salon]].<ref name="ReferenceA" /> In this, her last exhibited painting, she managed what an expert called "a summation of her career"<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> depicting most of her previous subjects together in a work she donated to the restored [[King Louis XVIII]]. There is some evidence that Vallayer-Coster gave it to the king as an expression of her joy as a loyal [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] supporter through the turbulent years of the Revolution and Napoleonic imperialism.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
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[[File:Bouquet of Flowers in a Terracotta Vase with Peaches and Grapes by Anne Vallayer-Coster.jpg|thumb|Anne Vallayer-Coster, ''Bouquet of Flowers in a Terracotta Vase with Peaches and Grapes,'' 1776]]
[[File:Bouquet of Flowers in a Terracotta Vase with Peaches and Grapes by Anne Vallayer-Coster.jpg|thumb|Anne Vallayer-Coster, ''Bouquet of Flowers in a Terracotta Vase with Peaches and Grapes,'' 1776]]
[[File:Vallayer-Coster, Anne - Victoire of France - Versailles MV 3807.png|thumb|Anne Vallayer-Coster, ''Victorie of France,'' 1779-1781]]
[[File:Vallayer-Coster, Anne - Victoire of France - Versailles MV 3807.png|thumb|Anne Vallayer-Coster, ''Victorie of France,'' 1779-1781]]
Vallayer-Coster used oil on canvas for most of her paintings. She achieved a great verisimilitude in the representation of materials and textures by the use of precise, finely blended brush strokes.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. ii" /> According to the art historian Marianne Roland Michel, it was the "bold, decorative lines of her compositions, the richness of her colors and simulated textures, and the feats of illusionism she achieved in depicting wide variety of objects, both natural and artificial"<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" /> that drew the attention of the Royal Académie and the numerous collectors who purchased her paintings. This interaction between art and nature was quite common in Dutch, Flemish, and French still lifes.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" /> Her work reveals the clear influence of [[Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin]], as well as 17th-century Dutch masters, whose work has been far more highly valued, but what made Vallayer-Coster’s style stand out against the other still life painters was her unique way of coalescing representational illusionism with decorative compositional structures.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" /><ref name="Berman 2003" /> Her objective was to give an aspect of grandeur to everything that she painted; in doing so, she created an additional sense of stability and plenitude. The critic John Haber, who describes her work as lacking inwardness, says that the solidity and reassuring materiality of her compositions appealed to elite bankers and [[aristocracy|aristocrats]], who could appreciate her rendering of "contrasting veneers of different woods" or "an extravagant collection of coral and shells, things that took years to come into being and will last for decades to come."<ref name="Haber 2003" />
Vallayer-Coster used oil on canvas for most of her paintings. She achieved a great verisimilitude in the representation of materials and textures by the use of precise, finely blended brush strokes.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. ii" /> According to the art historian Marianne Roland Michel, it was the "bold, decorative lines of her compositions, the richness of her colors and simulated textures, and the feats of illusionism she achieved in depicting wide variety of objects, both natural and artificial"<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" /> that drew the attention of the Royal Académie and the numerous collectors who purchased her paintings. This interaction between art and nature was quite common in Dutch, Flemish, and French still lifes.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" /> Her work reveals the clear influence of [[Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin]], as well as 17th-century Dutch masters, whose work has been far more highly valued, but what made Vallayer-Coster's style stand out against the other still life painters was her unique way of coalescing representational illusionism with decorative compositional structures.<ref name="Michel 1960, p. i" /><ref name="Berman 2003" /> Her objective was to give an aspect of grandeur to everything that she painted; in doing so, she created an additional sense of stability and plenitude. The critic John Haber, who describes her work as lacking inwardness, says that the solidity and reassuring materiality of her compositions appealed to elite bankers and [[aristocracy|aristocrats]], who could appreciate her rendering of "contrasting veneers of different woods" or "an extravagant collection of coral and shells, things that took years to come into being and will last for decades to come."<ref name="Haber 2003" />


==Exhibition==
==Exhibition==
In 2002-2003 more than thirty-five of Vallayer-Coster’s paintings, which were provided by both museums and private collectors of France and the United States, were exhibited at the [[National Gallery of Art]], [[Frick Collection|The Frick Collection]], and the [[Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy|Musee des Beaux-Arts de Nancy]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette|url=https://dma.org/art/exhibition-archive/anne-vallayer-coster-painter-court-marie-antoinette|website=Dallas Museum of Art}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA" /> The exhibition, "Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie Antoinette," was the first exhibition to provide a proper, all-encompassing representation of her paintings. It was organized by the [[Dallas Museum of Art]] and curated by Eik Kahng.<ref name="McKinven 2002" /><ref name="ReferenceA" /> The exhibition included additional works by [[Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin|Chardin]], her elder and the celebrated master of still life painting, and her contemporary [[Henri-Horace Roland Delaporte]], among others.<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> In June 2015, the [[Nationalmuseum]] added Vallayer-Coster’s 1773 ''[[Portrait of a Violinist]]'' to its collection of 18th-century French painting. The [[Nationalmuseum]] is also in possession of Vallayer-Coster’s 1775 ''Still Life with Brioche, Fruit, and Vegetables'' and her undated miniature ''Floral Still Life.''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Olausson|first=Magnus|date=2015|title=Anne Vallayer-Coster, Portrait of a Violinist|url=http://nationalmuseum.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:992775/FULLTEXT01.pdf|journal=Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum|volume=22}}</ref> In March 2019, the [[Kimbell Art Museum|Kimball Art Museum]] acquired Vallayer-Coster's 1787 painting titled ''Still Life with Mackerel.''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Anne Vallayer-Coster {{!}} Kimbell Art Museum|url=https://www.kimbellart.org/art-architecture/recent-acquisitions/anne-vallayer-coster-0|website=www.kimbellart.org|language=en}}</ref>
In 2002-2003 more than thirty-five of Vallayer-Coster's paintings, which were provided by both museums and private collectors of France and the United States, were exhibited at the [[National Gallery of Art]], [[Frick Collection|The Frick Collection]], and the [[Museum of Fine Arts of Nancy|Musee des Beaux-Arts de Nancy]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette|url=https://dma.org/art/exhibition-archive/anne-vallayer-coster-painter-court-marie-antoinette|website=Dallas Museum of Art}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA" /> The exhibition, "Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie Antoinette," was the first exhibition to provide a proper, all-encompassing representation of her paintings. It was organized by the [[Dallas Museum of Art]] and curated by Eik Kahng.<ref name="McKinven 2002" /><ref name="ReferenceA" /> The exhibition included additional works by [[Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin|Chardin]], her elder and the celebrated master of still life painting, and her contemporary [[Henri-Horace Roland Delaporte]], among others.<ref name="McKinven 2002" /> In June 2015, the [[Nationalmuseum]] added Vallayer-Coster's 1773 ''[[Portrait of a Violinist]]'' to its collection of 18th-century French painting. The [[Nationalmuseum]] is also in possession of Vallayer-Coster's 1775 ''Still Life with Brioche, Fruit, and Vegetables'' and her undated miniature ''Floral Still Life.''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Olausson|first=Magnus|date=2015|title=Anne Vallayer-Coster, Portrait of a Violinist|url=http://nationalmuseum.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:992775/FULLTEXT01.pdf|journal=Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum|volume=22}}</ref> In March 2019, the [[Kimbell Art Museum|Kimball Art Museum]] acquired Vallayer-Coster's 1787 painting titled ''Still Life with Mackerel.''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Anne Vallayer-Coster {{!}} Kimbell Art Museum|url=https://www.kimbellart.org/art-architecture/recent-acquisitions/anne-vallayer-coster-0|website=www.kimbellart.org|language=en}}</ref>


==Works by Anne Vallayer-Coster==
==Works by Anne Vallayer-Coster==
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==References==
==References==
* Berman, Greta. [http://www.juilliard.edu/update/journal/focusOnArt_0303.html “Focus on Art”.] The Juilliard Journal Online 18:6 (March 2003)
* Berman, Greta. [http://www.juilliard.edu/update/journal/focusOnArt_0303.html "Focus on Art".] The Juilliard Journal Online 18:6 (March 2003)
*Bonnet, Marie-Jo. "Female Painters at Work: Self-Portraits as Political Manifestos (18th - 19th Centuries)", ''Revue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine'', vol. 49-3, no. 3, 2002, pp.&nbsp;140–167.
*Bonnet, Marie-Jo. "Female Painters at Work: Self-Portraits as Political Manifestos (18th - 19th Centuries)", ''Revue d'histoire moderne & contemporaine'', vol. 49-3, no. 3, 2002, pp.&nbsp;140–167.
*Chrisman-Campbell, K. (2012). Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from The Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections. ''Woman's Art Journal'', ''33''(2), 62+. <nowiki>https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A337816139/AONE?u=nysl_sc_ithaca&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=666ec7b6</nowiki>
*Chrisman-Campbell, K. (2012). Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from The Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections. ''Woman's Art Journal'', ''33''(2), 62+. [https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A337816139/AONE?u=nysl_sc_ithaca&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=666ec7b6]
* Cohen, Sarah R. “Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 36:4 (2003): 571-576
* Cohen, Sarah R. "Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette." Eighteenth-Century Studies 36:4 (2003): 571–576
* Doy, Gen. Seeing and Consciousness: Women, Class and Representation. Gordonsville: Berg Publishers, 2005 p.&nbsp;33
* Doy, Gen. Seeing and Consciousness: Women, Class and Representation. Gordonsville: Berg Publishers, 2005 p.&nbsp;33
* Greer Germaine. The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Works. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2001. Pp 244–247
* Greer Germaine. The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Works. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2001. Pp 244–247
* Haber, John. [http://www.haberarts.com/coster.htm “Dead Flowers”.] New York Art Crit (2003).
* Haber, John. [http://www.haberarts.com/coster.htm "Dead Flowers".] New York Art Crit (2003).
*Hoashi, Lisa. "Politics of a Genre." American Artist, 08, 2002, 8, {{ProQuest|232328431}}.
*Hoashi, Lisa. "Politics of a Genre." American Artist, 08, 2002, 8, {{ProQuest|232328431}}.
*Magnus Olausson, “Anne Vallyer-Coster, Portrait of a Violinist”, Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 22, 2015, <nowiki>https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:992775/FULLTEXT01.pdf</nowiki>
*Magnus Olausson, "Anne Vallyer-Coster, Portrait of a Violinist", Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 22, 2015, [https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:992775/FULLTEXT01.pdf]
* McKinven, Mary Jane. June 2002. "Stunning Still Lifes by Anne Vallayer-Coster, Foremost 18th-Century Painter in Court of Marie-Antoinette". National Gallery of Art (June 2002)
* McKinven, Mary Jane. June 2002. "Stunning Still Lifes by Anne Vallayer-Coster, Foremost 18th-Century Painter in Court of Marie-Antoinette". National Gallery of Art (June 2002)
* Michel, Marianne Roland. "Tapestries on Designs by Anne Vallayer-Coster." The Burlington Magazine 102: 692 (November 1960): i-ii
* Michel, Marianne Roland. "Tapestries on Designs by Anne Vallayer-Coster." The Burlington Magazine 102: 692 (November 1960): i-ii
* Michel, Marianne Roland. "Vallayer-Coster, Anne". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University Press. Web.
* Michel, Marianne Roland. "Vallayer-Coster, Anne". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University Press. Web.
*Rothenberg, Sandra. "Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette." Library Journal 127, no. 17 (Oct 15, 2002): 67.{{ProQuest|196779524}}.
*Rothenberg, Sandra. "Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette." Library Journal 127, no. 17 (Oct 15, 2002): 67.{{ProQuest|196779524}}.
*Spies-Gans, Paris Amanda. “Exceptional, but Not Exceptions: Public Exhibitions and the Rise of the Woman Artist in London and Paris, 1760–1830.” Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 51, no. 4, 2018, pp.&nbsp;393–416., <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1353/ecs.2018.0009</nowiki>.
*Spies-Gans, Paris Amanda. "Exceptional, but Not Exceptions: Public Exhibitions and the Rise of the Woman Artist in London and Paris, 1760–1830." Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 51, no. 4, 2018, pp.&nbsp;393–416., [https://doi.org/10.1353/ecs.2018.0009].
* The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437864 "Anne Vallayer-Coster, Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell"].
* The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437864 "Anne Vallayer-Coster, Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell"].
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041022063214/http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=2 "Woman painter rescued from obscurity."] United Press International (February 2003).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041022063214/http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=2 "Woman painter rescued from obscurity."] United Press International (February 2003).
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[[Category:Still life painters]]
[[Category:Still life painters]]
[[Category:18th-century women painters]]
[[Category:18th-century women painters]]
[[Category:19th-century women painters]]

Revision as of 15:07, 22 July 2024

Anne Vallayer-Coster
Portrait of Anne Vallayer-Coster by Alexander Roslin (1783), Crocker Art Museum
Born(1744-12-21)21 December 1744
Paris, Kingdom of France
Died28 February 1818(1818-02-28) (aged 73)
NationalityFrench
Known forPainting
Anne Vallayer-Coster, Portrait of a Violinist, 1773
Anne Vallayer-Coster, Vase, Lobster, Fruits, and Game, 1817

Anne Vallayer-Coster (21 December 1744 – 28 February 1818) was a major 18th-century French painter best known for still lifes. She achieved fame and recognition very early in her career, being admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1770, at the age of twenty-six.[1]

Despite the low status that still life painting had at this time, Vallayer-Coster's highly developed skills, especially in the depiction of flowers, soon generated a great deal of attention from collectors and other artists.[1] Her "precocious talent and the rave reviews" earned her the attention of the court, where Marie Antoinette took a particular interest in Vallayer-Coster's paintings.[1]

Her life was determinedly private, dignified and hard-working. She survived the bloodshed of the Reign of Terror,[2] but the fall of the French monarchy, who were her primary patrons, caused her reputation to decline.

In addition to still lifes, she painted portraits and genre paintings, but because of the restrictions placed on women at the time her success at figure painting was limited.[3]

Biography

Queen Marie-Antoinette (1780)

Earlier years

Portrait of Marie-Adelaide-Louisa de France

Born in 1744 on the banks of the Bièvre near the Seine, Vallayer-Coster was one of four daughters born to a goldsmith Joseph Vallayer (1704–1770) of the royal family et compagnon des Gobelins.[3] One could assume that the artist's family tapestry business had some influence on her interest and skill in art. Many of her paintings were indeed copied into tapestries by the Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.[4] Since her childhood was spent in the factory, she had the opportunity to experience the entire operation of the business.[5] In 1754, her father moved the family to Paris. Vallayer-Coster seems not to have entered the studio of a professional painter, possibly because such an apprenticeship to an unrelated male was difficult for a respectable woman. Like other women artists of the time, she was effectively trained by her father; but also learned from other sources including the botanical specialist Madeleine Basseport, and the celebrated marine painter Joseph Vernet.[6]

Anne Vallayer-Coster, Still Life with Brioche, Fruit and Vegetables, 1775
Anne Vallayer-Coster, Basket of Plums, 1769

Career beginnings

Still Life with Round Bottle
Anne Vallayer-Coster, Still Life with Game, 1782

By the age of twenty-six, Vallayer-Coster was still without a name or a sponsor; this proved to be a worrisome issue for her.[3] Reluctantly, she submitted two of her still lifes—The Attributes of Painting and The Attributes of Music (both now in the holdings of the Louvre)[6]—to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, as reception pieces in 1770.[7] She was unanimously elected into the Royal Académie once the Academicians saw her paintings, making her one of only fourteen women accepted into the Académie before the French Revolution.[8] This moment of success, however, was overshadowed by the death of her father. Immediately her mother took over the family business, quite commonly the case during this time, and Anne continued to work to help support her family.[7]

Along with her Attributes of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture and Attributes of Music paintings, nine more of Vallayer-Coster's paintings, some of which had previously been submitted to the academicians, were displayed in the Salon exhibit of 1771. Commenting on the Salon exhibit of 1771, the encyclopedist Denis Diderot noted that "if all new members of the Royal Academy made a showing like Mademoiselle Vallayer's, and sustained the same high level of quality, the Salon would look very different!"[1] Though she is known for still life paintings in this period, her portraiture grew in popularity, and her 1773 Portrait of a Violinist was purchased by the National Museum in 2015.

Vallayer-Coster exhibited her first floral still life in 1775, and subsequently became known especially as a painter of flowers.[9] Four years later, she began to enjoy the patronage of Marie Antoinette.[10] With her Court connections and pressure from Marie Antoinette, she received space in the Louvre in 1781 which was unusual for women artists.[10] Shortly thereafter, in the presence of Marie Antoinette at the courts of Versailles, she married Jean-Pierre Silvestre Coster (1745–1824), a wealthy lawyer, parlementaire, and respected member of a powerful family from Lorraine. Marie Antoinette signed the marriage contract as witness.[7][10] With these titles came the very highest ranks of the bourgeoisies, the noblesse de robe. With such a prestigious title came a state office which, traditionally during this time was bought from father to son, making them almost indistinguishable from the old nobility.[10]

Career Recognition

She received early recognition of her career after being elected as an associate and a full member of the Royal Académie in 1770. Her strategies in initiating and sustaining her professional career were brilliant. She was exceptional in achieving membership in the academy and succeeding in a prominent, professional career late in the 18th century, when resistance to women in the public sphere was deepening and the Académie was as resistant as ever to welcoming women into its ranks.[11] A common image of Vallayer-Coster was not only as a virtuous artist but as a skilful diplomat and negotiator, sharply aware both of her potential patrons' interests and of her own unusual position as a prominent woman artist.[11]

Later years

With the Reign of Terror in 1793, the ancient regime, which up to this point had supported Vallayer-Coster, disappeared.[12] Despite her noble status and her connection to the throne, Vallayer-Coster was able to avoid the pandemonium of the French Revolution in 1789,[7] but the fall of the French monarchy affected her career. There is evidence that during this period of decline in Vallayer-Coster's career, she worked for the Gobelins Tapestry factory as a means to continue her artistic endeavors.[11] Although during Napoléon's reign, the empress Josephine acquired two works from her in 1804, her reputation was diminished.[1] Vallayer-Coster concentrated on floral paintings in oil, watercolor and gouache.[13]

In 1817 she exhibited Still Life with Lobster in the Paris Salon.[12] In this, her last exhibited painting, she managed what an expert called "a summation of her career"[1] depicting most of her previous subjects together in a work she donated to the restored King Louis XVIII. There is some evidence that Vallayer-Coster gave it to the king as an expression of her joy as a loyal Bourbon supporter through the turbulent years of the Revolution and Napoleonic imperialism.[12]

Anne Vallayer-Coster, Madame de Saint-Huberty in the Role of Dido, 1785

She died in 1818 at the age of seventy-three having painted more than 120 still lifes, always with a distinctive colouristic brilliance.[1]

Artwork

Still Life with Mackerel, 1787

Style and technique

Anne Vallayer-Coster, Joseph-Charles Roettiers, 1777

Vallayer-Coster worked principally in the varieties of still life developed over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.[11] Conventional morality precluded women artists from drawing from the nude model, which was the necessary foundation for the higher genres. Still life, considered the least intellectual of the genres and the lowest in the academic hierarchy, was therefore deemed the appropriate subject for female artists. While accepting this limitation in order to gain admission to the academy, the main conduit of royal patronage, Vallayer-Coster devoted her formidable technical abilities to the still life, creating works of undeniable seriousness and real visual interest.[14]

Anne Vallayer-Coster, Bouquet of Flowers in a Terracotta Vase with Peaches and Grapes, 1776
Anne Vallayer-Coster, Victorie of France, 1779-1781

Vallayer-Coster used oil on canvas for most of her paintings. She achieved a great verisimilitude in the representation of materials and textures by the use of precise, finely blended brush strokes.[13] According to the art historian Marianne Roland Michel, it was the "bold, decorative lines of her compositions, the richness of her colors and simulated textures, and the feats of illusionism she achieved in depicting wide variety of objects, both natural and artificial"[11] that drew the attention of the Royal Académie and the numerous collectors who purchased her paintings. This interaction between art and nature was quite common in Dutch, Flemish, and French still lifes.[11] Her work reveals the clear influence of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, as well as 17th-century Dutch masters, whose work has been far more highly valued, but what made Vallayer-Coster's style stand out against the other still life painters was her unique way of coalescing representational illusionism with decorative compositional structures.[11][14] Her objective was to give an aspect of grandeur to everything that she painted; in doing so, she created an additional sense of stability and plenitude. The critic John Haber, who describes her work as lacking inwardness, says that the solidity and reassuring materiality of her compositions appealed to elite bankers and aristocrats, who could appreciate her rendering of "contrasting veneers of different woods" or "an extravagant collection of coral and shells, things that took years to come into being and will last for decades to come."[2]

Exhibition

In 2002-2003 more than thirty-five of Vallayer-Coster's paintings, which were provided by both museums and private collectors of France and the United States, were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, The Frick Collection, and the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Nancy.[15][12] The exhibition, "Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie Antoinette," was the first exhibition to provide a proper, all-encompassing representation of her paintings. It was organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and curated by Eik Kahng.[1][12] The exhibition included additional works by Chardin, her elder and the celebrated master of still life painting, and her contemporary Henri-Horace Roland Delaporte, among others.[1] In June 2015, the Nationalmuseum added Vallayer-Coster's 1773 Portrait of a Violinist to its collection of 18th-century French painting. The Nationalmuseum is also in possession of Vallayer-Coster's 1775 Still Life with Brioche, Fruit, and Vegetables and her undated miniature Floral Still Life.[16] In March 2019, the Kimball Art Museum acquired Vallayer-Coster's 1787 painting titled Still Life with Mackerel.[17]

Works by Anne Vallayer-Coster

  • A Bust of Minerva with Armour and Weapons on a Stone Ledge (1777)
    A Bust of Minerva with Armour and Weapons on a Stone Ledge (1777)
  • A Lady Writing, and her Daughter (1775)
    A Lady Writing, and her Daughter (1775)
  • Attributes of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (1769)
    Attributes of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (1769)
  • Attributes of Music (1770)
    Attributes of Music (1770)
  • Still Life with a Ham (ca. 1767)
    Still Life with a Ham (ca. 1767)
  • Still Life with Peaches and Grapes
    Still Life with Peaches and Grapes
  • Still-Life with Tuft of Marine Plants, Shells and Corals (1769)
    Still-Life with Tuft of Marine Plants, Shells and Corals (1769)
  • Bouquet of flowers in a glass of water (ca. 1774)
    Bouquet of flowers in a glass of water (ca. 1774)
  • Still Life with Lobster (ca. 1781)
    Still Life with Lobster (ca. 1781)
  • Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell (1780)[18]
    Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell (1780)[18]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i McKinven 2002
  2. ^ a b Haber 2003
  3. ^ a b c Greer 2001, p. 244
  4. ^ Roland-Michel, Marianne (1970). Anne Vallayer-Coster. C.I.L., Paris. pp. 148–154.
  5. ^ Harris, Ann Sutherland (1977). Women Artists 1550-1950. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 179–180. ISBN 9780394411699.
  6. ^ a b Cohen 2003, p. 572
  7. ^ a b c d Greer 2001, p. 247
  8. ^ McKinven, 2002
  9. ^ Michel, Oxford Art Online
  10. ^ a b c d Doy 2005, p. 33
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Michel 1960, p. i
  12. ^ a b c d e "Woman painter rescued from obscurity." 2003
  13. ^ a b Michel 1960, p. ii
  14. ^ a b Berman 2003
  15. ^ "Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette". Dallas Museum of Art.
  16. ^ Olausson, Magnus (2015). "Anne Vallayer-Coster, Portrait of a Violinist" (PDF). Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum. 22.
  17. ^ "Anne Vallayer-Coster | Kimbell Art Museum". www.kimbellart.org.
  18. ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art

References

  • Berman, Greta. "Focus on Art". The Juilliard Journal Online 18:6 (March 2003)
  • Bonnet, Marie-Jo. "Female Painters at Work: Self-Portraits as Political Manifestos (18th - 19th Centuries)", Revue d'histoire moderne & contemporaine, vol. 49-3, no. 3, 2002, pp. 140–167.
  • Chrisman-Campbell, K. (2012). Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from The Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections. Woman's Art Journal, 33(2), 62+. [1]
  • Cohen, Sarah R. "Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette." Eighteenth-Century Studies 36:4 (2003): 571–576
  • Doy, Gen. Seeing and Consciousness: Women, Class and Representation. Gordonsville: Berg Publishers, 2005 p. 33
  • Greer Germaine. The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Works. London: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2001. Pp 244–247
  • Haber, John. "Dead Flowers". New York Art Crit (2003).
  • Hoashi, Lisa. "Politics of a Genre." American Artist, 08, 2002, 8, ProQuest 232328431.
  • Magnus Olausson, "Anne Vallyer-Coster, Portrait of a Violinist", Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volume 22, 2015, [2]
  • McKinven, Mary Jane. June 2002. "Stunning Still Lifes by Anne Vallayer-Coster, Foremost 18th-Century Painter in Court of Marie-Antoinette". National Gallery of Art (June 2002)
  • Michel, Marianne Roland. "Tapestries on Designs by Anne Vallayer-Coster." The Burlington Magazine 102: 692 (November 1960): i-ii
  • Michel, Marianne Roland. "Vallayer-Coster, Anne". Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web.
  • Rothenberg, Sandra. "Anne Vallayer-Coster: Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette." Library Journal 127, no. 17 (Oct 15, 2002): 67.ProQuest 196779524.
  • Spies-Gans, Paris Amanda. "Exceptional, but Not Exceptions: Public Exhibitions and the Rise of the Woman Artist in London and Paris, 1760–1830." Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 51, no. 4, 2018, pp. 393–416., [3].
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Anne Vallayer-Coster, Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell".
  • "Woman painter rescued from obscurity." United Press International (February 2003).
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