Among the very few female artists admitted to the Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture in the eighteenth century, Anne Vallayer-Coster was acclaimed for her virtuoso depictions of flowers and other still lifes. Her rendition of textural contrasts of organic and manmade materials, along with the “vigour” and “truthfulness” of her paintings, were noted by both patrons and critics.

A Vase of Flowers and Grapes is a quintessential example of the artist’s manner of juxtaposing the textures and colours of flower petals and leaves with the vessels in which she presents them – in this case porcelain with a gilt-bronze base. The deep blue of the vase contrasts with the translucency of the bunch of grapes that hangs over the stone ledge. A similar vase appears in the still life of flowers in the Musée des Beaux-Arts at Nancy from the same date (fig. 1). With reference to the present painting, two specialists of the decorative arts, Sophie Mouquin and Christophe de Quénetain, recently observed: ‘Le Vase de fleurs et raisins posés sur un entablement, daté de 1781…est particulièrement remarquable. La subtilité des glacis, la délicatesse de la touche transcrivent avec poésie l’éclat de la porcelaine sur laquelle se reflète une fenêtre. Le bleu cobalt de Chine est rehaussé par quelques touches d’or qui esquissent à peine une garniture de bronze doré…’ [The Vase of Flowers and a Cluster of Grapes on a Stone Ledge, dated 1781 (...) is particularly remarkable. The subtlety of the glazes and the delicacy of the brushwork poetically transcribe the brilliance of the porcelain in which a window is reflected. The Chinese cobalt blue is enhanced by a few touches of gold that suggest a gilt-bronze base…].[1]

Floral arrangements such as these, particularly when juxtaposed with rock crystal, mounted porcelain or vases made of other sumptuous materials, allowed the artist to demonstrate her accomplished mastery over different types of reflective surfaces with subtle references to seventeenth-century Dutch still lifes, yet without the religious, moral, or metaphorical connotations. Here, the shining blue orb reflects the white flower almost touching it, and serves to offset the pink and white roses that lead the viewer’s eye to the double anemone and the impressive branch of blue hollyhocks rising from the bouquet. A drop of water suspended on the petal of the pink rose at left underscores the variety of nature’s textures. Bathed in soft light made almost velvety against a neutral background, Vallayer-Coster’s exquisite still life is an exploration of tactility, which was prized by her many prestigious patrons, including Queen Marie-Antoinette.

Born in 1744 as the daughter of a master goldsmith, Anne Vallayer grew up among artists. This familial milieu contributed to her greater access to artistic education, more than typically afforded women artists in the eighteenth century. The prominent flower and still-life painter Madeleine Françoises Basseporte (1701–1780) was her sister’s godmother, for example. It was likely Basseporte, who specialised in botanical illustrations, who offered Vallayer-Coster artistic instruction. In her early years, Vallayer-Coster also studied with the landscape painter Joseph Vernet (1714–1789). The understated still lifes of Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699–1779) were a major inspiration for Vallayer-Coster; although she never studied with him, they would have encountered each other as Chardin supervised the installation of the Academy’s biennial exhibitions in his role as tapissier until 1774. Like those of the older master, Vallayer-Coster’s still lifes of foodstuffs and cookware, hunting trophies, trompe l’oeil marble or terracotta reliefs, or her exquisite floral arrangements, emphasise the variety and arrangement of the depicted motifs with beautiful colouristic and chiaroscuro effects.

In 1770, with the support of both aristocratic patrons and fellow artists, Vallayer-Coster was admitted with full membership to the Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture, thereby gaining the right to exhibit her works in the biennial Salon exhibitions. Upon seeing her Académie reception pieces displayed in the 1771 Salon (figs. 2 and 3), the critic Denis Diderot lavished the young artist with praise, writing that her paintings astonished and enchanted viewers: ‘C’est la nature, rendue ici avec une force de verité inconcevable, et en même temps une harmonie de couleur qui séduit…’ [This is nature itself, rendered here with unbelievable truthfulness, and a seductive harmony of colors...].[2]

He went on to celebrate her strength of colouring, her manner of finishing without preciousness, the freshness of her tonalities, and the beauty of her chromatic harmonies, placing them above all others of the French school: ‘Nul de l’École française n’a atteint la force du coloris de Mlle Vallayer, ni son fini sans être tâtonné. Elle conserve partout la fraîcheur des tons et la belle harmonie.’ [No one from the French School has achieved the power of Mlle Vallayer’s color, nor her assured finish without finickiness. She preserves the freshness of the tonalities and beautiful harmony throughout.][3]

This early interest in texture and colouristic contrasts is visible in the present canvas in the slight impasto of the white and pink roses in contrast to the looser, gestural handling in the other flowers that seem to almost emerge from the background. The cooler turquoise hue of the leaves serves to further emphasise the overall warm tones of the painting and the brilliance of the blue vase.

Having been named “Painter to the Queen” in 1780, the artist married the lawyer Jean Pierre Silvester Coster in 1781. The signatories to their marriage contract include numerous artists, members of the monarchy’s arts administration, prominent collectors and patrons, and Queen Marie-Antoinette herself, a testament to the artist’s elevated status. Shortly thereafter, in 1783, Vallayer-Coster was depicted by the Swedish portraitist Alexandre Roslin (1718–1793) in a prominent portrait that was featured in the 1783 Salon (fig. 4). Paintbrushes and palette in hand, this portrait depicts Vallayer-Coster as a well-established artist, shown in fashionable garments that showcase the interplay of various textures and fabrics for which Vallayer-Coster herself was known. A much more intimate depiction, in miniature, from a few years later by Jean-Antoine Laurent, shows a somewhat rejuvenated Vallayer-Coster, palette and mahlstick in hand (fig. 5). Wearing fashionable neoclassical dress, she is seated in front of an arrangement of flowers and a sumptuous, gilt-mounted vase much like the ones with which she had established her reputation.

Vallayer-Coster’s close association with Marie-Antoinette and other members of the royal family augmented the artist’s rise in the 1770s and 1780s, but subsequently contributed to her fall from favour during the French Revolution when affiliation with the ancien régime became a social and political liability. Nevertheless, she returned to exhibiting in the Salon in 1795 and continued to do so until 1817, the year before her death. After 1804, she was able to count Empress Joséphine among her patrons. Upon Madame Coster’s death in 1818, the contents of her studio remained with her husband. Following his demise in 1826, the announcement describing the auction of her estate was entitled “Madame Vallayer-Coster, Famous Painter of Flowers.” Like the other women painters of her era who had been inducted into the Académie Royale, she was limited by the established hierarchy of genres to portraiture and still-life painting, but she managed to achieve great recognition and even celebrity for her pre-eminence within those fields.

What may be considered Anne Vallayer-Coster’s most spectacular still life of flowers and fruit is the lush painting of 1783 (fig. 6) that recently resurfaced from a collection near Nancy and appeared in an auction held at Christie’s in Paris on June 15, 2023; there it was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Fig. 1. Anne Vallayer-Coster, Fleurs dans un vase bleu, c. 1781, oil on canvas, 40 x 32 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy, inv. 172

Fig. 2. Anne Vallayer-Coster, Attributes of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, 1769, oil on canvas, 90 x 121 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris, INV 8259

Fig. 3. Anne Vallayer-Coster, Attributes of Music, 1770, oil on canvas, 88 x 116 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris, INV 8260

Fig. 4. Alexandre Roslin, Portrait of the Painter Anne Vallayer Coster, 1783, oil on canvas, 74 x 60 cm. Crocker Art Museum, Gift of Alan Templeton, 2015.34

Fig. 5. Jean Antoine Laurent, Portrait of Anne Vallayer-Coster in Neoclassical Dress near Still Life of Flowers, c. 1790, watercolor on ivory, diameter 77 cm. Private Collection

[1] Sophie Mouquin and Christophe Huchet de Quénetain, Coatlem, 2023, p. 79. Cited in Literature.

[2] Denis Diderot, “Salon de 1771” in Héros et martyrs: Salons de 1769, 1771, 1775, 1781. Paris: Hermann, 1995, p. 196.

[3] Ibid.