Painted at the height of Anne Vallayer-Coster's artistic powers, this still-life painting belonged to a high-ranking official of the entourage of the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. It was exhibited at the Salon of 1777, the year after it was painted. Vallayer-Coster was one of four women painters who enjoyed the privileges and prestige of membership in the Royal Academy during the last quarter of the 18th century. Through the patronage of her earliest champion, Marie Antoinette, and the sheer virtuosity of her talent, Vallayer-Coster's career flourished throughout the 1770s and 80s, only fading with the tumult of the French Revolution in 1789. Celebrated especially for her brilliant depictions of flower arrangements, Vallayer-Coster was considered the successor to Jean-Siméon Chardin as the foremost still-life painter of the French school.

Adapted from

Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2009.

• National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
  Learn more about Anne Vallayer-Coster.

• DMA Uncrated
  Check out the blogs from the Dallas Museum of Art that include works by Vallayer-Coster.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  View another still life by Vallayer-Coster.