Basket of Plums, 1769 (oil on canvas)

During the later part of the 18th century, fruit still lifes were extremely popular, and a basket of plums was a common motif. In Vallayer's painting the details, especially the plums and the basket, emerge from deep shadows. The colors are vivid - reds and violets - and a sense of immediacy is invoked by the growing moss, the cakes in their crisp papers, and the glass of water, with its sparkling highlights and reflections. Anne Vallayer and two or her contemporaries, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842) and Adélaide Labille-Guiard (1749-1803), were the foremost women painters in 18th-century France. In 1770, at age 26, Vallayer was accepted into the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In 1780 she painted a portrait of Marie Antoinette. After marrying Jean-Pierre Silvestre Coster she exhibited under the name Vallayer-Coster. A prolific artist with more than 400 known works, she painted--in addition to still lifes--flower pictures, miniatures, and portraits.