A Vallayer-Coster exhibition at the Galerie Coatalem

5/11/23 - Exhibition and art market - Paris - If Anne Vallayer-Coster has ever been the subject of a retrospective exhibition in France, it was in Marseille in 2003. But Paris had never had the chance to see a large number of her paintings in one place. This has now been done, thanks to a dealer, Éric Coatalem, who is exhibiting some twenty works by this remarkable artist, one of the finest women painters of the late 17th-century who had a lot to offer, at his gallery in the Faubourg-Saint-Honoré until 16 December.

1. Alexandre Roslin (1718-1793)
Portrait of Anne Vallayer-Coster
Oil on canvas - 74 x 60 cm
Sacramento, Crocker Art Museum
Photo: Crocker Art Museum

See the image in its page

Of these paintings, only four or five are for sale, the others belonging to private collections that have exceptionally loaned them for the occasion. There is even a painting belonging to a museum, the Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento (ill. 1). It is not by her, but it represents her. We are reproducing this portrait by Alexandre Roslin, an acquisition by this museum from the Coatalem gallery almost ten years ago that had escaped us.
 We will not, however, be seeing a portrait painted by Vallayer-Coster herself, who is sometimes less gifted in this area, even though she has also produced some fine works, such as the canvas acquired by Stockholm in 2015 (see the news item of 7/4/15). The choice here is to show her still lifes and trompe-l’œil. While the latter are also of fine quality, we have to admit that we prefer her still lifes, a genre in which she produced authentic masterpieces.

2. Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818)
Minerva Bust and Military Attributes, 1777
Oil on canvas - 114 x 158.7 cm
Private collection
Photo: Galerie Éric Coatalem

See the image in its page

Of course, we won’t be seeing the exceptional Still-Life with Tuft of Marine Plants, Shells and Corals in the Louvre, perhaps one of the finest 17th-century works in this…