- NameAdam Coster
- Sexmale
- Nationality/DatesFlemish, born 1586, dead 1643
BiographyLittle is known about this painter. In 1607 he
became a master in the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp.
In 1626–1627 he took a Pauwels Telliers as his pupil.
It is probable that he visited Italy but there is no documentation
about his travelling. He is however recorded
in Hamburg in 1635. Since no signed or documented
works are known, all attributions stem from a
print by Lucas Vorsterman after a lost painting by the
artist showing backgammon players and a female
lutenist grouped around a table on which two candles
are burning. His works are mostly genre pieces with
half figures depicted with special light effects. He is
often mentioned in connection with the group of Caravaggisti,
painters such as Theodor Rombouts, Jan
Cossiers, Jacob van Oost the elder and Louis Finson.
He painted genre scenes with groups of musicians and
individuals playing games and smoking around tables
lit by candles. De Coster must have enjoyed a certain
status as a painter in Antwerp in the 1620s and 1630s
since Anthony van Dyck included his portrait in his
“Iconography”. He is mentioned there as a nocturne
painter (“Pictor Noctium Mechliniensis”).