For BADA Week 2023 BADA Dutch Old Masters specialist Johnny Van Haeften has chosen to feature this compelling still life by Dutch Golden Age painter Adriaen Coorte (circa 1665 - after 1707).
Coorte remains one of the more intriguing Dutch Masters given that we know next to nothing of his life. It is assumed that he was born and died in the city of Middleburg to the South West of the Netherlands, and at some point was tutored by the great animalier painter Melchior d'Hondecoeter in Amsterdam.
About 80 signed works by Coorte have been catalogued, mostly still life arrangements of fruits, vegetables or shells mounted on a stone slab. Seemingly unknown to many of his contemporaries, Coorte's work was all but forgotten until an article by the Dutch Art Historian Laurens J Bol sparked a richly deserved revival of his reputation in the 1950s.
Image Caption:
Adriaen Coorte (circa 1665 - after 1707).
Still Life of Fruit on a Stone Ledge.
Signed and dated, lower right: A. Coorte, i688.
Oil on canvas.
58 x 46 cm.
Framed 77 x 66 x 5 cm.