Very little is known of Adriaen Coorte’s life, but he is assumed to have been born and died in Middelburg.

He became a pupil of Melchior d'Hondecoeter around 1680 in Amsterdam.

He seems from 1683 to have returned to Middelburg, where he has set up a workshop and signs his small, carefully balanced minimalist still lifes.

He often paints on paper that is glued to a wooden panel.

About eighty signed works by him have been catalogued, and nearly all of them follow the same pattern; small arrangements of fruits, vegetables, or shells on a stone slab, lit from above, with the dark background typical of still lifes earlier in the century.

Instead of the Chinese or silver vessels favored by his contemporaries, his tableware is very basic pottery.

Neither his birth nor death date is certain, and archival evidence only exists in Middelburg for his membership in the Guild of St. Luke here from 1695 onward, when he was fined for selling a painting without being a member of the guild.

His works appear frequently in contemporary Middelburg taxation inventories.