WALLERANT VAILLANT (attr. A)

(Lille, 1623 - Amsterdam, 1677) Vanitas Oil on copper round, diameter 14.2 cm A famous portrait painter, Vaillant's production also includes genre scenes, still lifes and trompe l'oeil. A pupil of Erasmus Quellinus (1607-1678) in Antwerp, the painter soon moved to Amsterdam and then to Germany, staying between 1655 and 1658 in Middelburg, Heidelberg and Frankfurt, where Leopold I commissioned a series of portraits in black pencil. In 1659, the artist arrived in France, receiving a commission from Queen Mother Anne of Austria to execute pastel portraits of Louis XIV, Maria Theresa of Austria, Marianne of Austria, and Eleanor Gonzaga. Returning to Amsterdam in 1665, the artist continued his activity, benefiting from the commercial wealth of the Hanseatic city. This work is an interesting interpretation of vanitas conceived as a still life, following an illustrative formula inaugurated by Jacques de Gheyn the Younger (1565-1629). However, it was probably Bartholomäus Bruyn the Elder (c. 1493-1553/57) who conceived the motif of the arched recess containing a skull, but unlike De Gheyn, Vaillant's compositions are surprising in their essentiality.