A Bowl of Strawberries on a Stone Plinth

Adriaen Coorte was active as a painter in Middelburg from 1683 to 1707, where he created his known works, primarily small still lifes of fruit, vegetables, or shells on a stone slab. He signed his works between 1683 and 1707, and archival records from Middelburg document his membership in the Guild of St. Luke in 1695, when he was fined for selling a painting without guild affiliation. His earliest dated work is from 1683, and his latest known dated work is from 1707.

Coorte’s works were largely forgotten until the 1950s, when art historian Laurens J. Bol revived interest in his oeuvre, culminating in a 1958 exhibition at the Dordrechts Museum and a 1977 monograph and catalogue raisonné. A new price record was set in 2014 when a painting sold at Sotheby’s for £3,444,500.

Adriaen Coorte was almost entirely forgotten for nearly two centuries after his death, with his work entering public collections only in the twentieth century. Although mentioned sporadically in sale records and by scholars like Henry Havard in 1881, his reputation was fundamentally revived by art historian Laurens J. Bol. Bol published a seminal article in 1952, organized a sensation-causing exhibition of thirty-five works at the Dordrechts Museum in 1958, and released the first monograph and catalogue raisonné in 1977.

Coorte is now recognized as one of the last practitioners of the intimate still life category typical of the early Dutch Golden Age, distinguished by his minimalist compositions of fruit or vegetables on stone slabs against dark backgrounds. Subsequent retrospectives, including a 2003 show at the National Gallery of Art and the 2008 travelling exhibition Ode to Coorte, have cemented his status as a celebrated rediscovered master of the Dutch Baroque.

Adriaen Coorte’s modest still lifes, including A Bowl of Strawberries on a Stone Plinth, were largely overlooked after his death and remained obscure for nearly two centuries. Recognition began in the early 20th century through isolated mentions, but sustained attention arrived only in the 1950s when Laurens J. Bol published a foundational article in 1952 and mounted a 1958 exhibition of 35 works at the Dordrechts Museum that became a Dutch sensation, inspiring poets Hans Faverey and Ed Leeflang. Scholarly and public interest grew with Bol’s 1977 monograph and catalogue raisonné, followed by a 2003 National Gallery of Art, Washington retrospective and the 2008 travelling exhibition “Ode to Coorte,” which cemented Coorte’s reputation as the most celebrated rediscovered Dutch Baroque painter of recent decades.

Market validation surged after 2000: two newly discovered Coortes sold at Sotheby’s on 1 December 2009 for more than ten times their estimates, and on 3 December 2014 a work titled Three Peaches on a Stone Ledge with a Red Admiral Butterfly achieved £3,444,500, setting a record for the artist.

The painting depicts a solitary bowl brimming with strawberries, set upon a rugged stone ledge that rests against a deep, almost black background. The composition is simple yet deliberate, drawing the viewer’s eye to the vivid red of the fruit against the surrounding darkness.