Following on from the Toledo Museum's announcement last week, it seems that American Institutions are focusing great energies presently in acquiring works by female Old Masters. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have recently uploaded a full catalogue note for one of their latest acquisitions. The illustration above shows a Still Life with a Vase of Flowers, Melon, Peaches, and Grapes by Charlotte Eustache Sophie de Faligny Damas, marquise de Grollier (French, Paris 1741–1828 Épinay-sur-Seine), a highly accomplished amateur painter and friend to artists. Indeed, Antonio Canova admired her skills enough to describe the Marquise as the "Raphael of flower painting."
One of the highlights of the Sotheby's New York January 2022 auction was the sale of Anne Vallayer-Coster's (1744 - 1818) Still life of flowers in a vase on a table beside a bust of Flora, with fruit and other objects with a curtain beyond. Commissioned by the Abbé Joseph Marie Terray (1715-1778), this masterpiece was one of the most important works by the artist remaining in private hands.
