A Vanitas

A Vanitas

1669
Artist
Edward Collier, British, 1640-1710
Active Years: 1669-1707
Object
painting
Medium
Oil paint on canvas
Accession Number
2020.4
Credit Line
Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust

Edward Collier, A Vanitas, 1669. Oil paint on canvas; 32 1/4 × 45 3/4 in. (81.9 × 116.2 cm). Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust, 2020.4

Dimensions
image height: 32 1/4 in, 81.915 cm; image width: 45 3/4 in, 116.205 cm; frame height: 43 in, 109.2200 cm; frame width: 58 in, 147.3200 cm; frame depth: 3 1/4 in, 8.255 cm
Department
European and American Art Before 1900
Collection
European Painting and Sculpture before 1900

All the objects in this picture refer to the military life of a deceased soldier—a suit of armor, sword, rifle, plumed helmet, box of medals, and a book open to a page showing a type of cannon. The small portrait may be of the soldier himself. The symbolic center of the picture is a pocket watch, an allusion to the passage of time and the brevity of human life. 
 

Known Provenance
Sotheby’s, New York, June 3, 1988, lot 108; Christie’s, New York, May 23, 1997, lot 61; from which acquired by William M. B. and Bernadette Berger, Denver; Berger Collection Educational Trust; gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2020. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum and we will post information as it becomes available. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.
Exhibition History
  • “Age of Armor” — Denver Art Museum, 5/15/2022 – 9/5/2022

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