Adam de Coster

Details about the life and training of Adam de Coster are sketchy. It is known he was originally from Mechelen where he was born in the year 1585 or 1586 as the son of Jan de Coster and Clara van der Borcht. In 1607 he is recorded in Antwerp on his admission as a master in the local Guild of Saint Luke. Despite the lack of documentary evidence, it is assumed that de Coster travelled to Italy in his formative years. Here he would have been in touch with the works of Caravaggio and his followers, which would have such an important influence on his style and subject matter. Some of the recently rediscovered works of de Coster were part of Italian collections, which also points to a possible residence in Italy. De Coster did have strong personal ties with Italy as some of his close relatives emigrated to Italy where they worked as painters. He spent his active career in Antwerp where he seems to have enjoyed a high reputation. This is confirmed by the fact that Anthony van Dyck painted his Portrait in grisaille and an engraving freely cut after this portrait by Pieter de Jode II was included in van Dyck's "Iconography" (Icones Principum Virorum), a collection of portraits of leading personalities of van Dyck's time. Below his portrait de Coster is described as a Pictor Noctium i.e. a 'Painter of Nights', a clear reference to his preference for tenebrist scenes. It demonstrates that his reputation as a painter of night scenes had been established firmly in Northern Europe by the 1630s. The artist did not have any known pupils. His name was largely forgotten after his death and his work attributed to other artists. ==Work==

Adam de Coster was not in the habit of signing or dating his works. As a result, many of his works were attributed to other Caravaggisti. His oeuvre has been reconstituted mainly on the basis of an engraving made by Lucas Vorsterman the Elder (1595–1675) after the lost painting Backgammon or Tric-trac players by candle light. This work provided the basis for the attribution of further paintings. Adam de Coster's oeuvre is mainly composed of genre paintings with half-length figures and dramatic light effects. He preferred stark chiaroscuro and returned time and again to the motif of half-length figures illuminated by candlelight. He was clearly familiar with the work of Caravaggio and his followers and in particular the Utrecht Caravaggists. De Coster's paintings show a certain affinity with those of Georges de La Tour and other French variations of the tenebrist movement in Caravaggism. More direct influences, however, are Gerard Honthorst and Antonio Campi. A fine example of his work is the Three Singers (Liechtenstein Collections). In this work de Coster depicts a musical performance by three singers who are singing from the same songbook. The three musicians are drawn with fine yet sharp features, against the background of a red curtain. They are illuminated from below by a source of light outside the picture. De Coster shows his mastery in the sensuous rendering of the fabric of the female singer's dress and the way it catches the light. Closely related to this work is A young woman holding a distaff before a lit candle (At Sotheby's 25 January 2017 in New York, lot 23), another composition depicting a single figure lit by the flame of what appears to be the same candle stick. The similarities between the two compositions illustrates de Coster's reworking of a successful compositional prototype. ==Notes==