Pieter Angillis, 1685–1734, Flemish, active in Britain (from ca. 1715)
Title:
Vegetable Seller, Covent Garden
Date:
ca. 1726
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on panel
Dimensions:
13 5/8 x 10 5/8 inches (34.6 x 27 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1973.1.2
Gallery Label:
Around 1715, the Flemish artist Pieter Angillis arrived in London, where his market scenes, conversation pieces, and still-life paintings proved popular with English collectors. He traveled to Rome in 1728, in the company of the Flemish sculptors Peter Gaspar Scheemakers and Laurent Delvaux. But on his way back to England in 1730, he settled in Rennes, France, where he died a few years later. While living in London, he depicted Covent Garden Market several times in his paintings. Here, Angillis seems to suggest that this vegetable seller, with her direct gaze, doll-like features, inviting gesture, and low neckline (in an area notorious for prostitution), may perhaps be as available to the buyer as her leeks, cabbages, turnips, and carrots. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
