Still Life with Lobster
Artist: Anne Vallayer-Coster (French, 1744-1818)
Date: 1781
Dimensions:
Painting: 27 3/4 × 35 1/4 in. (70.5 × 89.5 cm)
Frame: 35 3/4 × 43 × 2 1/2 in. (90.8 × 109.2 × 6.4 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1968.1A
Label Text:One of only four women to be admitted to the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture before the French Revolution, Anne Vallayer-Coster was an accomplished and successful painter with the patronage of Queen Marie-Antoinette. This canvas was painted the year after Vallayer-Coster was appointed a painter to the queen and the year she was married to wealthy lawyer Jean-Pierre Coster (the marriage contract was signed by Marie-Antoinette herself as a witness).
Vallayer-Coster was best known for her still life paintings. Here she depicts a bright red, cooked lobster on a white cloth in front of a luxury silver soup tureen. Rounds of bread, a basket of grapes, a covered glass jar, a silver bowl of salt, and two glass and gilded cruets (vessels for oil or vinegar) round out the tabletop display. Look closely at the reflection in the tureen—it seems to reveal the artist’s studio window and the artist herself painting at her easel.
Vallayer-Coster was best known for her still life paintings. Here she depicts a bright red, cooked lobster on a white cloth in front of a luxury silver soup tureen. Rounds of bread, a basket of grapes, a covered glass jar, a silver bowl of salt, and two glass and gilded cruets (vessels for oil or vinegar) round out the tabletop display. Look closely at the reflection in the tureen—it seems to reveal the artist’s studio window and the artist herself painting at her easel.
Not on view
In Collection(s)