Gabriel de la Corte Madrid 1648 - 1694

We are grateful to Dr. William B. Jordan for identifying this painting to be a work by de la Corte, on the basis of photographs.

Gabriel de la Corte was the last significant native flower painter of the seventeenth century in Madrid.  Very little is known about his life; the biographer Antonio Palomino wrote in 1724 that Gabriel was the son of Francisco de la Corte, a painter of large perspective paintings, however 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; he turned to flower painting as a means of supporting himself.  Lacking the necessary connections to the wealthier classes that were served by Juan de Arellano and Bartolomé Pérez, he worked for the local Madrid art trade making flower paintings and garlands for sale in galleries (see W.B. Jordan and P. Cherry, Spanish Still Life from Velazquez to Goya, exhibition catalogue, London 1995, pp.142-144).