John Vanderlyn

John Vanderlyn ( born October 18, 1775 in Kingston, New York, † September 23, 1852 ) was an American painter.

Life

Already Vanderlyns father and grandfather were painters. The former, Pieter Vanderlyn (1687-1778) emigrated from Holland to New York and made a primarily portraits on. His son, Nicholas Vanderlyn (1723-1810), a glazier painter, also sold painting supplies. After his education at the prestigious Kingston Academy John Vanderlyn went at the malls leaders and distributors of printing Thomas Barrow in New York in teaching. From 1792 he took two years courses at the Columbian Academy. From this time, in 1793, wrote the portrait of his brother Nicholas Vanderlyns, which is considered the oldest surviving. It is kept in the Senate House State Historic Site in Kingston. In 1794 he learned in Barrows Shop Gilbert Stuart know and allowed to move into his studio in Philadelphia.

Thanks to the patronage of Aaron Burr, who discovered it in Stuart's studio, he could first be Stuart's assistant and received later than the first American painter who was trained in Paris, in the story. Burr and Vanderlyn found that one can learn a suitable for the young American republic art rather in revolutionary France as in the UK. In Paris, Vanderlyn was then in 1800 also the first American who exhibited at the Paris Salon and even won a prize. So it is no wonder that he is considered one of the representatives of French classicism. He spent two years studying at the Académie de Peinture the École des beaux -arts in Francois -André Vincent. After Burr was unable to pay because of financial straits him from the end of 1798 or beginning of 1799 no longer dependent to Vanderlyn, for example, the politician Elbridge Gerry moved on portraying American tourists so. He stayed until 1801 in Paris.

Aaron Burr suggested Vanderlyn ago after his return to New York to paint a series with Niagara Falls as a motif, which this until 1803 did. According to these images, he produced later in stitches. The cases were still a quarter of a century later, in 1827 and 1837, the subject of his work. Vanderlyn received by the Common Council of New York commissioned John Jay to portray, but protected against this disease for political reasons. In the Yale University Art Gallery are two paintings from the year 1802. Firstly, a portrait of Aaron Burr, on the other hand one of his daughter Theodosia Burr Alston.

Edward and Robert R. Livingston wanted the second trip to Europe Vanderlyns finance. He should prepare against a handsome salary for the newly opened New York Academy of Fine Arts, both copies of the Old Masters as well as plaster casts of ancient sculptures of collections of Paris, of Florence and Rome. But the Livingston did not stop this agreement and announced in 1804 unilaterally the contract. During his stay in Paris, Vanderlyn painted a portrait of Robert Livingstone and his first history painting. Inspired by the poem Joel Barlow's Columbiad The he created The Death of Jane McCrea ( The Death of Jane McCrea ). Barlow, whom he knew from his first stay in Paris ago had instructed him, but after the completion Vanderlyn demanded a price lower than the agreed, which led to a discord between the two.

1805 Vanderlyn went for three years to Rome, where he now painted copies for other clients. Buoyed by the duel between Burr and Alexander Hamilton was born there in 1807, another historical picture named Marius Amid the Ruins of Carthage. It is now part of the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. In Rome, he received praise for this work in Paris in 1808, however, the above- mentioned price of the Paris Salon, the médaille d' encouragement of Napoleon. In Paris he continued his copying and portraiture, but ended with his Ariadne Asleep on the Iceland of Naxos, which is considered one of his masterpieces, one of the first acts of an American painter.

In 1814 he started with the long-planned project, a panorama of the castle and the gardens of Versailles to create. To this end, he set in order to achieve a realistic representation as accurate as possible, a camera obscura, a. Thus he was able to continue working even after his return to New York the following year. For the finished around 1820 work he was specially a rotunda in a New York City park built - against entrance fee, visitors could admire the view there. For the privately operated by Rotunda he rented also panoramic images of other painters such as Paris, Athens and Geneva, but proved to be not the business model to be profitable. Today is the painting as a gift of the Senate House Association Kingston at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was mainly associated with the Versailles anti- democratic impact that could be the project for financial debacle. Nevertheless, he went on tour with him, exhibition venues were, for example, Charleston, New Orleans or Havana. In the rivalry between Vanderlyn John Trumbull and the position of the leading American history painter not only met two schools of painting, Trumbull made ​​use of successive British Grand Styles, but also two political attitudes. While Vanderlyn close ties to the Democratic-Republican Party, Trumbull supported the Federalists. With the appointment Trumbull's 1817 president of the American Academy of the Fine Arts Vanderlyn lost this competition.

But Vanderlyn procured his masterful portraits him in the same year the order of the City of New York for an effigy of President James Monroe. In 1837 he also got the opportunity a history painting for the rotunda of the Capitol to establish: Ten years it took to finish the wizard and he presented the work Landing of Columbus at the Iceland of Guanahani, West Indies, 12 October 1492 in oil.

Work

The majority of Vanderlyns works are portraits. Represented less numerous are histories and landscapes. The system established for the rotunda of the Capitol paintings for landing of Christopher Columbus is despite the efforts Vanderlyns to realism as one of the best symbolic representations of Manifest Destiny.

The sleeping Ariadne auf Naxos ( Ariadne Asleep on the Iceland of Naxos ), circa 1808-1812, oil on canvas, 175 × 224 cm, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts ( Philadelphia )

Marius meditating on the ruins of Carthage ( Marius Amid the Ruins of Carthage ), 1807, oil on canvas, 221 × 174 cm, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Portrait Vryling Sampson Stoddard Wilder, circa 1808-12, oil on canvas, 92.4 x 73.3 cm, Worcester Art Museum