EDWAERT COLLIER | Trompe l'œil with a letter rack holding newspapers, letters, writing equipment and a comb

Edwaert Collier moved from The Netherlands to London in 1693, when Dutch taste was ascendant following the ascent of the Dutch monarchs William and Mary to the English throne, and was buried in St. James', Piccadilly in 1708, two years after he executed this painting. He had returned to Leiden between 1702–06, but it is unclear as to where the present work might have been painted: it combines a newspaper written in Dutch, a copy of Her Majesty's Speech in English, and a proudly-positioned signature using the English form of his name, but with a Dutch epithet, in the centre of the composition. Collier repeated this arrangement, with variations in the objects, in a number of paintings that testify to considerable demand from both Dutch and English markets. It is notable, however, that in his seminal survey of Dutch painting Walter Bernt chose the present work to exemplify the type (see Literature).