id: 146148 accession number: 1971.47 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.47 updated: 2023-02-08 18:03:35.620000 Basket of Plums, 1769. Anne Vallayer-Coster (French, 1744–1818). Oil on canvas; unframed: 38 x 46.2 cm (14 15/16 x 18 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1971.47 title: Basket of Plums title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1769 creation date earliest: 1769 creation date latest: 1769 current location: 216B French and German creditline: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund copyright: --- culture: France, 18th century technique: oil on canvas department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - French 18th Century type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Anne Vallayer-Coster (French, 1744–1818) - artist --- measurements: Unframed: 38 x 46.2 cm (14 15/16 x 18 3/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower right: "M.elle Vallayer / 1769" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1971 opening date: 1971-12-28T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972). title: Chardin and the Still Life Tradition in France opening date: 1979-06-06T04:00:00 Chardin and the Still Life Tradition in France. The Cleveland Museum of Art (June 6-August 12, 1979). title: Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America opening date: 1993-03-26T04:00:00 Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993). title: Anne Vallayer-Coster: Still-Life Painting in the Age of Marie Antoinette opening date: 2002-06-30T00:00:00 Anne Vallayer-Coster: Still-Life Painting in the Age of Marie Antoinette. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (June 30-September 22, 2002); The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (organizer) (October 13, 2002-January 5, 2003); Frick Collection, New York, NY (January 21-March 23, 2003); Centre de la Vieille Charité, Marseille, France (April 9-June 23, 2003). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Salon, Paris, France (1771). * English, French, Italian, Netherlandish, Spanish, and German Art, National museum, Stockholm, Sweden (1918). * Three Centuries of Still Life, Göteborg Art Museum, Sweden, (April 28-May 17, 1938). * Five Centuries of French Art, National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden (15 August-9 November). * Luis Melendez: Bodegones, Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, Spain (Feb. 17 - May 16, 2004). --- PROVENANCE Baron Herzog, Budapest, Hungary date: footnotes: citations: Axel Ryden, Stockholm, Sweden date: 1918 footnotes: citations: Osborn Kling, Stockholm, Sweden date: 1934 footnotes: citations: (Sale: H. Bukowski, Stockholm, Sweden, September 25-26, 1934, no. 323) date: September 25-26, 1934 footnotes: citations: Thorsten Laurin, Stockholm, Sweden, and his daughter Mrs. B. Stjernsward, Sakanor, Sweden date: 1938 footnotes: citations: (Sale: Sotheby's, London, June 24, 1970, no. 4) date: June 24, 1970 footnotes: citations: [Old Masters Gallery, London, England] date: footnotes: citations: [H. Shickman Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: -1971 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1971- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: During the later part of the 1700s, fruit still lifes were extremely popular, and a basket of plums was a common motif. In Vallayer's painting the details, especially the plums and the basket, emerge from deep shadows. The colors are vivid reds and violets and a sense of immediacy is invoked by the growing moss, the cakes in their crisp papers, and the glass of water with its sparkling highlights and reflections. wall description: During the later part of the 1700s, fruit still lifes were extremely popular, and a basket of plums was a common motif. In Vallayer's painting the details, especially the plums and the basket, emerge from deep shadows. The colors are vivid reds and violets and a sense of immediacy is invoked by the growing moss, the cakes in their crisp papers, and the glass of water with its sparkling highlights and reflections. Anne Vallayer and two of her contemporaries, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755–1842) and Adélaide Labille-Guiard (1749–1803), were the foremost women painters in 18th-century France. In 1770, at age 26, Vallayer was accepted into the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In 1780 she painted a portrait of Marie Antoinette. After marrying Jean-Pierre Silvestre Coster she exhibited under the name Vallayer-Coster. A prolific artist with more than 400 known works, she painted flower pictures, miniatures, and portraits in addition to still lifes. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Paris, Salon, 1771. page number: cat. no. 147 url: Collection des livrets des anciennes expositions depuis 1673 jusqu'en 1800. Paris: Liepmannssohn et Dufour, 1869. . page number: p. 29, no. 147; url: Engelska, franska, italienska, nederländska, spanka och tyska konstverk: Utst. Nationalmuseum 1918. 1918. page number: cat. no. 40 url: Bukowskis (Firm). Möbler, bronser, skulptur. mattor ... silver, keramik, oljemålningar. 1934. page number: no. 323, illus. pl. 37 url: Laurin, Thorsten, and Ragnar Hoppe. Katalog över Thorsten Laurins samling av mäleri och skulptur. Stockholm: [P.A. Norstedt], 1936. page number: no. 399, pl. 218 url: Matthiesen konsthandel A.-B. Stilleben fran tre århundraden. [Göteborg]: [Isacsons], 1938. page number: cat. no. 52. url: Nationalmuseum (Stockholm). Fem sekler Fransk konst: bilder från utställningen i Nationalmuseum [Stockholm. 15 augusti-9 november 1958]. Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 1958. page number: cat. no. 102 url: Sotheby's (Firm). Important Old Master Paintings. 1970. page number: no. 4 url: Roland Michel, Marianne. Anne Vallayer-Coster, 1744-1818. Paris (5e): C.I.L. [Comptoir international du livre, 24, rue des Carmes], 1970. page number: no. 183, p. 155 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. page number: Reproduced: p. 152; Mentioned: p. 151 url: Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1971.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 1 (1972). page number: cat. no. 56 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152412 Michel, Marianne Roland, and Ursula Korneitchouk. “A Basket of Plums.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 2 (1973). page number: pp. 52-59, figs. 4, 5, 6, 10 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152471 Clark, Carol C. “Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin: Still Life with Herring.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 9 (1974). page number: 309, 314, n. 2, fig. 2 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152549 Faré, Michel, and Fabrice Faré. La vie silencieuse en France: la nature morte au XVIIIe siècle. Fribourg: Office du Livre, 1976. page number: p. 217, fig. 332 url: Weisberg, Gabriel P., and William S. Talbot. Chardin and the Still-Life Tradition in France. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1979. page number: cat. no. 7 url: Kahng, Eik, Anne Vallayer-Coster, Marianne Roland Michel, and Colin B. Bailey. Anne Vallayer-Coster, Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette. [Dallas, TX]: Dallas Museum of Art, 2002. page number: cat. 2, fig. 7, p. 197; url: Cherry, Peter, Juan J. Luna, Natacha Seseña, and Luis Meléndez. Luis Meléndez: bodegones. [Madrid]: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2004. page number: cat., fig. 42, p. 95 url: Luna, Juan J. "Meléndez and the Development of Spanish and European Still Life Painting in the Eighteenth Century." In Meléndez: Still Lifes. Peter Cherry, and Juan J. Luna, 44-79. [Dublin]: National Gallery of Ireland, 2004. page number: Reproduction: P. 65-66, fig. 46 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.47/1971.47_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.47/1971.47_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1971.47/1971.47_full.tif