The Maria Shirley lecture: At either end of the seventeenth-century Golden Age: the Dutch painters Clara Peeters and Adriaen Coorte

Clara Peeters (active from 1607 to 1621) and Adriaen Coorte (active 1683-1707) were both very mysterious Dutch artists, whose careers and paintings were largely unknown, until two fairly recent exhibitions  began to bring them out of obscurity and to reinstate them as influential and fascinating painters of still life. In 2017 the National Gallery acquired as a gift from the collection of Willem Baron van Dedem, an exquisite still life by Coorte; and another Coorte, a luscious pile of wild strawberries, was bequeathed to the Mauritshuis in The Hague by the London art dealer Edward Speelman. The same collection has also benefited from another recent bequest of one of Clara Peeters most quintessential works. The lecture will be an opportunity to explore and enjoy these fascinating artists.