National Gallery of Art

Biography

Despite careful research by eminent art historians, virtually nothing is known about Coorte except that his signed and dated paintings, which number about 100, range from 1683 to 1707. Not only are his life dates unknown, no information has survived about his artistic training. The scholarly consensus is that he lived and worked in Middelburg, the capital of the province of Zeeland in the southern part of the Netherlands. An "Adriaen Coorte," who could have been his father, lived in Middelburg in 1665, and Coorte's still lifes were collected largely by Middelburg art lovers.

The only document that refers to Coorte during his lifetime concerns a fine for selling paintings in the Middelburg market, levied because he was not a member of the local artists' guild. This fine has led to speculation that Coorte may have lived in the surrounding countryside, and may have been a gentleman "amateur" painter rather than a professional artist.

It was not until the 1950s, and particularly the 1958 exhibition devoted to the painter at the Dordrechts Museum in the Netherlands, that Coorte's unique artistic qualities became known to a wider public. Since then his works have become increasingly appreciated and valued by both private collectors and major museums.

Bibliography

1953

Bol, L.J. "Adriaen S. Coorte: Stillevenschilder." Nederlands kunsthistorisch jaarboek (1952-1953): 193-232.

1958

Adrian Coorte: Stillevenschilder. Exh. cat. Dordrechts Museum, 1958.

1969

Bol, L.J. Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts neben den grossen Meistern. Brunswick, 1969: 359-364.

1975

Müllenmeister, K.J. "Adrian Coorte." Die Weltkunst xlv (1975): 1603.

1977

Bol, L.J. Adriaen Coorte: A Unique Late 17th-century Dutch Still-Life Painter. Assen, 1977.

1989

Schneider, N. Stilleben: Realität und Symbolik der Dinge. Cologne, 1989.