Lot 89: * GABRIEL DE LA CORTE MADRID 1648 - 1694

STILL LIFE OF FLOWERS IN A WOVEN BASKET

32 1/2 by 24 1/4 in. ; 82.5 cm by 62 cm.

oil on canvas

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

We are grateful to Professor William B. Jordan and Peter Cherry for confirming the attribution of this previously unpublished work by Gabriel de la Corte on the basis of photographs.

Gabriel de la Corte can be described as the last significant native flower painter of the seventeenth century in Madrid. Very little is known about his life; the biographer Palomino wrote in 1724 that Gabriel was the son of Francisco de la Corte, a painter of large perspective paintings. It is more likely that the art historian Ceán Bermúdez was correct when he described Gabriel as the son of Juan de la Corte, the well-known painter of battles and mythological subjects. Ceán wrote that Gabriel was orphaned at the age of twelve, but already trained as an artist by his father he turned to flower painting as a means of supporting himself and worked for the local Madrid art trade making flower paintings and garlands for sale in galleries. Lacking the necessary connections to the wealthier classes that were served by Juan de Arellano and Bartolomé Pérez.