A Vanitas Still Life with a Flag, Candlestick, Musical Instruments, Books, Writing Paraphernalia, Globes, and Hourglass
Edwaert Collier (Dutch, 1642–1708)
1662
View the original$30
Type
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
This ambitious still life conjures the complexities of Dutch colonization and cartography in the 1600s. Casually arranged on a table are a book about seafaring, which includes a map of the Americas copied from a 1660 print; a volume on the history of Holland (Oud Batavia), a clever reference to the Dutch Republic’s new territory in Indonesia (Batavia); and the terrestrial and celestial globes, positioned to show the Pacific Ocean and lands the Dutch had newly reached. While the inscriptions on the globes and the scrap of paper at right are in Latin, the other documents are in Dutch; the Dutch presence is reinforced by the flag in the background.
By 1662 the Netherlands had ceded its territory in New Holland (now Brazil) to the Portuguese, and it was also fighting with the British for New Amsterdam (now New York) in North America. The tenuous nature of these conquests is amplified by ephemeral allusions. The extinguished candle, violin with a broken string, pocket watch, and hourglass all represent the biblical passage from Ecclesiastes at far right: Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas (Vanity of vanities, all is vanity). With his striking ability to paint the printed word, Collier raised questions about the permanence of worldly accomplishments and the ambitions of humankind.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 98 × 129.7 cm (38 1/2 × 51 in.)
Museum record · 3 owners · 2 exhibitions
Provenance
- Count Edward Raczynski, Warsaw and London, by 1929; probably sold to Mr. and Mrs. Fielding Lewis Marshall, Charlottesville, VA, and London, by 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.
Exhibitions
- 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.
