Download Image
Terms and conditions of use
Trompe l'œil with a letter rack holding newspapers, letters, writing equipment and a comb
1706
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
66.0 × 53.4 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 2020
Gallery location
18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Newspapers, letters and parliamentary speeches all have one thing in common – they are out of date the moment they are written or published. These items, featured in Edwaert Collier’s trompe l’oeil
(deceive the eye) letter rack paintings, operate within the long memento mori (remembrance of death) tradition in seventeenth century Dutch painting, as reminders of the brevity of life and the transitory nature of its pleasures and riches. Collier is most highly regarded for trompe l’oeil subjects in which he cleverly pins letters, pamphlets and writing instruments to a wall, holding everything
in place with strips of red material.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Leiden, the Netherlands
Accession Number
2020.520
Department
International Painting