A Vanitas Still Life with a Flag, Candlestick, Musical Instruments, Books, Writing Paraphernalia, Globes, and Hourglass

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1662

Edwaert Collier (Dutch, 1642–1708)

Edwaert Collier was well known in his own time for his still lifes, which replicated in intricate detail actual maps and globes. Here, he reproduced a portion of Frederik de Wit’s 1660 map of the Americas and Jodocus Hondius’s terrestrial globe with a view of Mexico, both of which allude to the Dutch Republic’s international trade networks and the ambition to possess the world through cartographic knowledge. The extinguished candle and hourglass, in contrast, reference the fleeting nature of time. Through such highly illusionistic renderings of the symbols of worldly pursuits, Collier evoked the tension between humanity’s lasting contributions to the fields of art and science and the brevity of an individual life.

Status: On View, Gallery 212
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Edwaert Collier
Title: A Vanitas Still Life with a Flag, Candlestick, Musical Instruments, Books, Writing Paraphernalia, Globes, and Hourglass
Place: Holland (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1662
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated: Eduwaert / Collier / 1662
Dimensions: 98 × 129.7 cm (38 1/2 × 51 in.); Framed: 122 × 152.4 cm (48 × 60 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior bequest of Joseph Winterbotham; Rhoades Foundation and Julius Lewis Acquisition Endowment Fund; European Painting Discretionary Fund
Reference Number: 2020.317
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/258490/manifest.json

E. Zarnowska, La Nature morte hollandaise: Les principaux représentants ses origines, son influence (Brussels/Maastricht: A. A. Stols, 1929), 11 (as, erroneously, dated 1665).

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, William Ackland Memorial Art Center, The Elizabeth and Fielding Lewis Marshall Collection, March 22–April 23, 1961 (no catalogue).
London, Sotheby’s, Exhibition of the Marshall collection : which will be sold by auction by Sotheby & Co. in several parts during 1974: the exhibition to be held in the large galleries 34-35 New Bond Street, London, December 31, 1973–January 8, 1974, no. 19 (ill.).

Count Edward Raczynski, Warsaw and London, by 1929 [according to Zarnowska 1929]; probably sold to Mr. and Mrs. Fielding Lewis Marshall, Charlottesville, VA, and London, by 1961 [according to Chapel Hill 1961]; sold, Bonhams, London, March 28, 1974, lot 28. Private collector, by 1998; sold, Sotheby’s, London, December 17, 1998, lot 39. Sold, Sotheby’s, New York, January 31, 2013, lot 68, to private collector, Greenwich, CT; sold to Salomon Lilian Dutch Old Master Paintings, Amsterdam, November 20, 2019; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2020.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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A Vanitas Still Life with a Flag, Candlestick, Musical Instruments, Books, Writing Paraphernalia, Globes, and Hourglass

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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