The strawberries lie freshly picked in an earthenware jar, and even three centuries after they were painted by Adriaen Coorte in a lush and enticing red, they look just as fresh as when they were harvested. This long-hidden masterpiece is the highlight of the new exhibition ‘Lucky 13 – Still Lifes and Landscapes from the Golden Age’. From 9 October 2014 to 29 March 2015, the Wallraf is presenting a series of outstanding works on permanent loan, recently acquired from the Heinrich-und-Anny-Nolte-Stiftung in Essen and from a private European collection. Paintings of the highest quality by artists such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, Jan van Goyen, Jacob van Ruisdael, Aert van der Neer and Edwaert Collier provide a taste of the most important period of Dutch painting. The significant collection of Cologne’s picture gallery is thus being enriched by the addition of names and motifs which have hitherto been absent.

Netherlandish painting in the seventeenth century is famous for its sensuous realism. Landscapes capture the big wide world on a much-reduced scale but nonetheless true to nature. Still lifes portray splendid bouquets of flowers, but also simple everyday objects as though they were there in front of you, waiting to be picked up. These pictures were then among the most sought-after works, and they still are. The exhibition ‘Lucky 13’ shows just how fortunate any collection or any collector can consider themselves if they own a masterpiece from the Golden Age.

The 13 paintings on show come mostly from Haarlem, the real home of the flower of Dutch painting in the seventeenth century, or from Amsterdam, the mercantile metropolis. Two colourful floral still lifes, three winter landscapes with pastimes on the ice, depicted with loving attention to detail, two unusual smoker still lifes and five finely composed landscape views will provide visitors with exciting moments of admiration and comparison. But one particularly delicacy is the ‘Still Life with Strawberries’ by the mysterious Adriaen Coorte, whose rare paintings are currently among the most highly sought-after masterpieces of the Golden Age. This work, dating from 1704, enchants the beholder with its poetic simplicity, which comes across as almost modern.