Dated Web objects before 1800 through 1839

Pieter Vanderlyn

Date: c. 1741

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1992.138

Text Entries: Pieter Vanderlyn emigrated from the Netherlands to New York in 1718 and served as a ship surgeon, composer, land speculator, and portrait painter of the patroons-leading Dutch landholders of the upper Hudson River Valley region-from 1730 to 1750. Vanderlyn's painting is a rigid yet tender portrayal of a mother and child. The composition demonstrates Vanderlyn's awareness of earlier Dutch portraits he may have observed in the form of prints hung in Dutch households. Despite the influence of Dutch art, the painter executed this work when the region came under British rule. American taste shifted to a preference for English-style portraits that featured more relaxed poses and gestures, modestly attempted by Vanderlyn through the suggested affection of the mother for her child.