Obsessed with asparagus, Coorte portrayed bundles of this expensive but locally grown delicacy many times. Using various artistic devices (dramatic spot lighting, plain dark background, forward placement), he creates a brilliant illusion of reality and elevates his humble and unusual subject to high art. Anglo- Welsh painter Frank Brangwyn loved the sensual qualities of Dutch still lifes: ‘A flower, a melon, all things are sensual […] And to a true painter, these things move one, they do something which urges [and] excites one to paint […] The joy of squeezing out of the tube a bit of juicy yellow or green […] All this is what I call sensual.’

Adriaen Coorte (1659/64 –1707)

Middelburg, Netherlands, 1703 Oil on canvas

Given by Frank Brangwyn, 1943 (2575)