Vallayer-Coster was born in Bievre, France, on December 21, 1744, into an artistic family. She was one of four daughters in the family. Her mother painted miniatures and her father, Joseph Vallayer, was a master goldsmith of the royal family at Gobelines. Her father’s high status and aristocratic patronage may have helped the young Vallayer-Coster overcome some of the restraints that interfered many women artists.
Anne Vallayer-Coster's father moved the family to Paris in 1954. She became interested in sketching and painting at an early age and her mother encouraged her in that.
Vallayer-Coster never entered the studio of any professional painter. Instead, she received her training from a variety of sources, including her father, the botanical specialist Madeleine Basseport, and the celebrated marine painter Joseph Vernet. Her first known painting was a portrait produced in 1762.
By the age of twenty-six, Vallayer-Coster was still without a name or a sponsor. This became a worrisome issue for her. In 1770 she submitted two of her still lifes, The Attributes of Painting and The Attributes of Music (both now in the holdings of the Louvre), to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, and was unanimously elected a member. Denis Diderot admired her work, as did Royal Academy voting member Jean Georges Wille who noted: "I was absolutely enchanted by the talent of the likeable person, whom I saw for the first time and whose talent is truly that of a man perfected in this genre of the painting representing still life."
However, this moment of success was overshadowed by the death of her father. Her mother immediately took over the family business, and Anne continued to work to help support her family. Though she was well-known for still life paintings in this period, she became also known for portraits, and her Portrait of a Violinist (1773) was purchased by the Nationalmuseum in 2015.
Vallayer-Coster presented publicly her first floral still life in 1775, and soon became known particularly as a painter of flowers. In four years she began to enjoy the patronage of Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France before the French Revolution. Due to her Court connections and pressure from Marie Antoinette, Anne Vallayer-Coster received space in the Louvre in 1781 which was unusual for women artists.
Her strategies in initiating and supporting her professional career were brilliant. A common image of Anne Vallayer-Coster was not only as a virtuous artist but as a skilful negotiator and diplomat. After a crushing review from critics at the Salon of 1785, Vallayer-Coster quit painting portraits and instead focused on still lifes.
The artist worked principally in the varieties of still life developed over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries. Vallayer-Coster used oil on canvas for most of her artworks. She achieved a great realism in the representation of materials and textures by the use of precise, finely blended brush strokes.
Anne Vallayer-Coster's painting reveals the clear influence of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, as well as 17th-century Dutch masters, whose work has been far more highly valued. Her goal was to give an aspect of greatness to everything that she depicted.
With the Reign of Terror, the ancient regime, which up to this point had supported Vallayer-Coster, disappeared in 1793. In spite of her noble status and her connection to the throne, Anne Vallayer-Coster was able to avoid the hostilities of the French Revolution in 1789, however, the fall of the French monarchy greatly affected her career. Though during Napoléon's reign, Empress Josephine acquired two artworks by Vallayer-Coster in 1804, the artist's reputation was diminished. During this time she concentrated on floral paintings in oil, watercolour and gouache.
In 1817 she displayed Still Life with Lobster in the Paris Salon. In her last work, she painted what an expert called "a summation of her career". She depicted most of her previous subjects together in a work she donated to the restored King Louis XVIII. There is some testimony that the painter gave it to the king as an expression of her joy as a loyal Bourbon supporter.
Anne Vallayer-Coster achieved fame and recognition quite early in her career. She was one of only four women accepted into the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture before the French Revolution.
Her highly developed skills, particularly in the depiction of flowers, generated a great deal of attention from collectors as well as other artists. Vallayer-Coster's "precocious talent and the rave reviews" earned her the attention of the court, where Marie Antoinette was greatly interested in Anne Vallayer-Coster's paintings. Besides, she had many influential patrons.
About 450 artworks are attributed to her brush, including portraits of flower arrangements, musical instruments, trophies, tureens of soup, kitchen utensils, table settings, tea services, wine, bread, hams, cheese, lobsters, and plums in a basket.
In June 2002 more than thirty-five of Anne Vallayer-Coster’s artworks, which were provided by both museums and private collectors of France and the United States, were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition was organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and curated by Eik Kahng.
Still Life with a Ham
Vase of Flowers with a Bust of Flora
Portrait of an elderly lady with her daughter
Still Life with Rabbit
Portrait of Princess Marie Adélaïde of France, called Madame Adelaide
The Attributes of Music
Attributes of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture
Still Life with Round Bottle
Portrait of Marie Antoinette
Still-Life with Tuft of Marine Plants, Shells and Corals
Vase of Flowers
Still Life with Lobster
Still Life with Peaches and Grapes
Still Life with Plums and a Lemon
Bouquet of flowers in a crystal vase
Bouquet of flowers in a blue vase with gilt-bronze mounts on a Louis XVI console table
Bouquet of flowers in a gilt-bronze mounted vase
Lièvre et bouquet de pavots sur un entablement
Still Life with Grapes, Plums and a Peach
Bouquet de roses
Vase of Flowers with Fruit and Peacock
Portrait de jeune femme en Flore
Portrait d'une violoniste
Bouquet de fleurs dans un vase
Scène de retour de chasse dans un paysage
Parsnips, a loaf of bread, eggs and a bottle on a stone ledge
Portrait d'homme
Still life with flowers in an urn, birds and fruit on a ledge below
Vénus et les amours
Bouquet de fleurs dans un vase de cristal avec sa cuvette, et fruits posés sur la table
Nature morte aux pêches et gobelet d'argent
Roses et cerises sur un entablement
Portrait of a lady Artist, with Roses in her Hair, and holding a Paintbrush
Nature morte
Nature-morte aux colvert, sarcelle et lièvre sur un entablement de pierre
Pêches, melon et raisins sur un entablement de pierre
Florero
A still life of mackerel, glassware, a loaf of bread and lemons on a table with a white cloth
Nature morte à la corbeille de quetsches et amandes posées sur un entablement
A bust of Minerva, armour, muskets, a drum, a standard, the baton of command of a Maréchal de France, a laurel wreath
Portrait of madame Adélaide Auguie, standing beside a table holding a vase of flowers
Trompe l'oeil of a terracotta bas-relief tacked to a wooden panel depicting children and a young faun gathering grapes
Portrait of a lady as Venus
Anne Vallayer-Coster joined the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1770.
Vallayer-Coster married Jean-Pierre Silvestre Coster, a wealthy lawyer, parlementaire, and respected member of a powerful family from Lorraine, France, in the presence of Marie Antoinette at the courts of Versailles. The Queen signed the marriage contract as a witness.
