Colijn de Coter

Who is Colijn de Coter?

Colijn de Coter was an early Netherlandish painter who produced mainly altarpieces. He worked primarily in Brussels and Antwerp in present-day Belgium. His name was sometimes given as Colijn van Brusele, indicating that he hailed from Brussels or at the least lived there most of his active life. He also signed several paintings with Coliin de Coter pingit me in Brabancia Bruselle.

De Coter was born around 1440–1445. This can be deduced from a 1479 document in the Brussels archives, naming him as a husband, painter and tenant of a house; in other words, he must have already reached adulthood in that year. Another document, dating from 1483, refers to him as Colijn van Brusele. This document states that he had registered with the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp and decorated a vault in the chapel of that guild in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. The archives of the Brussels Brotherhood of Saint Eloy list three payments to Colijn de Coter in 1509–1511 for painting a church tabernacle. From the archives of this brotherhood, we can also deduce that the painter's death probably fell somewhere in the period 1522–1532.