Attributed to Gerardus Duyckinck I
American, 1695–1746
Pierre Van Cortlandt
c. 1731
Oil on linen
144.8 x 105.5 cm
Brooklyn Museum
www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/627/Pierre_Van_Cortlandt#
De Peyster Boy, with a Dog
c. 1730–1735
Oil on canvas
127.6 x 104.1 cm
New York Historical Society
www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/de-peyster-boy-dog
John Smith (British, 1652–1743), after
Godfrey Kneller (British, 1646–1723)
Richard Lord Clifford and Lady Jane his Sister
1701
Mezzotint
41.1 x 25.3 cm
British Museum
http://tinyurl.com/mfp57xs
His Highness the Duke of Glocester
1691
Mezzotint
40.5 x 25.2 cm
British Museum
http://tinyurl.com/kpx3wz4
Today, Museum Dogs is taking a look at two more portraits attributed to Gerardus Duyckinck, a third-generation limner who worked in New York City and surrounding environs in the eighteenth century. (For more of his paintings and some info about him, check out http://museumdogs.tumblr.com/tagged/Duyckinck.) Limners were largely anonymous, self-taught, itinerant artists who worked outside the realm of academic art. Often having training and experience in decorative and sign painting, they specialized in portraits and, sometimes, religious scenes. Their work, which usually falls into the category of folk or “naïve” art, is characterized by flat, awkward figures and off-kilter perspective. Even so, such paintings display a unique vision that is sometimes lost in academic, high art. Varying degrees of skill are evident among limners’ paintings; Gerardus Duyckinck is one of the more accomplished artists of the genre. (Compare and contrast some limners’ works—and the dogs therein!—featured on Museum Dogs recently: http://museumdogs.tumblr.com/tagged/limner.)
Eighteenth-century American limners often copied poses and elements from mezzotint prints of European paintings. A longtime staple feature of European portraiture was dogs, and thus dogs found their way into early American paintings. Children in particular were often depicted with dogs and other animals like deer, lambs, and birds. Duyckinck’s portraits of Pierre van Cortlandt and Abraham de Peyster are excellent examples of the relationship between European paintings (via widely-circulated mezzotints) and their American counterparts, as well as the prevalence of excellent dogs in both artistic realms.
The connection between Pierre van Cortlandt and Abraham de Peyster goes beyond their sharing a portraitist; indeed, the two were family. There was lots of intermarriage and, by today’s standards, inbreeding among the de Peysters and van Cortlands—and indeed, all the wealthy families of New York in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (and after). That, however, made for all sorts of interesting connections between everyone. Abraham de Peyster and Pierre van Cortlandt were first cousins—Abe’s father and Pierre’s mother were brother and sister. Abe and Pierre also shared a set of great-grandparents. (Take a look at a family tree at http://tinyurl.com/kog95ry. One can’t always believe what one reads on the Internet, where the genealogical information came from, but I think/hope I got it right.)
Pierre van Cortlandt (1721–1814) was born into one of the most wealthy and powerful families in Colonial New York. His grandfathers, Stephanus van Cortlandt and Abraham de Peyster, had both served as Mayor of New York. Pierre himself went on to a number of governmental offices, including Vice President of the 4th New York Provincial Congress (the New York State Constitutional Convention), Senator in the New York state assembly, and Lieutenant Governor of New York, a position he held, through reelection five times, from 1778 until 1795. He had inherited lands and estates in Westchester County, where he built a number of houses. Van Cortlandt Manor (open to visitors; http://tinyurl.com/lxgzuvz), Oldstone (now used as an event location; www.monteverdeatoldstone.com), and Van Cortlandt Upper Manor House (now a nursing home; http://cortlandthealthcare.com/?page_id=212) still stand today. Also, three towns and a county in New York bearing the name of Cortland(t) are named after Pierre.[1]
Duyckinck’s likeness of the young van Cortlandt must have been pretty accurate, for it bears a strong resemblance to a portrait of him as an old man:
(Alas, I can’t find any information about the painting other than that the image file comes from a page on someone’s personal genealogy website, http://tinyurl.com/mfcotez. Take it for what you will.)
Abraham de Peyster (1723–1734) was the grandson of Abraham de Peyster (1657–1728), a native New Yorker (or, rather, New Amsterdamer) from a wealthy merchant family. The elder Abraham was a big wheel in the city and the colony, serving in many governmental roles: alderman, Chief Justice, President of the King's Council, and Treasurer of New York and New Jersey. His most notable position, however, was as Mayor of New York City from 1691 to 1694. (The statue of de Peyster that had stood in various parts of New York City since 1896 now resides in Thomas Paine Park, not too far from City Hall.) One of Abraham's sons, Abraham, Jr., served as Treasurer of the Province from 1721 to 1767. Abraham, Jr., married Margaret van Cortlandt, daughter of another mayor of New York, Jacobus van Cortlandt. Abraham, Jr., and Margaret had eleven children, of which the Abraham in the portrait by Duyckinck was one. He was born in 1723, but, like a number of his siblings, Abraham died young at age 11 in 1734. Incidentally, one of Abraham’s first cousins on his mother’s side was John Jay, the patriot and first Chief Justice of the Unites States Supreme Court.[2]
The portrait of young Abraham de Peyster (like the one of Jacomina Winkler (featured on Museum Dogs on Monday: http://t.co/hNewU9lb2E), was probably painted posthumously. Portraits of two other de Peyster siblings, commissioned at the same time as the one of Abraham, are also attributed to Gerardus Duyckinck: De Peyster Boy, with a Deer (possibly Jacobus, also known as James, de Peyster; www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/de-peyster-boy-deer) and De Peyster Girl, with a Lamb (either Catharine or Margareta de Peyster; www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/de-peyster-girl-lamb).[3]
Pierre van Cortland and Abraham de Peyster are connected not only by family, but also by their portraits, for Duyckinck based elements of both paintings on an English mezzotint, Richard Lord Clifford and Lady Jane his Sister (http://tinyurl.com/mfp57xs), made by the printer John Smith in 1701 and based on a painting by Godfrey Kneller. De Peyster’s pose and drapery are identical to those in the mezzotint, as are the fabric hanging on the right and the fountain, balustrade, and landscape in the left background. In the van Cortlandt painting, the dog is taken directly from the print, curled tail and all. The rest of the van Cortlandt painting—pose, background, etc.—is taken from another, dogless, mezzotint, His Highness the Duke of Glocester (http://tinyurl.com/kpx3wz4), also by John Smith after a painting by Godfrey Kneller. The de Peyster dog might be based on an animal from some other print or he might be purely Duyckinck’s invention.
In both paintings, the dogs symbolize loyalty and serve to underscore the boys’ future roles as lords and masters (something that poor Abraham did not live to experience). The van Cortlandt dog is a very handsome black greyhound sporting a gold collar. She gazes out at the landscape in the background with a thoughtful, intense expression (more more visible in the mezzotint). Something of interest is out there! A squirrel or bird, perhaps. NOW THAT IS FASCINATING. SHALL I CHASE IT? I AM A WOLF! I AM A STEALTHY AND WISE HUNTER! AND I SHALL CONTEMPLATE THE SITUATION UNTIL I DISCERN THE PROPER MOMENT TO STRIKE. UNLESS MY PERSON RELOCATES TO THE SOFA, IN WHICH CASE I WILL GO HAVE A SNOOZE INSTEAD. The de Peyster dog is a leggy red and white spaniel with a rather unspaniel-like tail. He looks up at the boy with what is probably supposed to be admiration but what looks (to me) more like slightly confused expectation. HEY PERSON DO YOU HAVE A TREAT IN YOUR HAND WHY IS YOUR HAND OUT IF IT DOES NOT CONTAIN A TREAT? WHAT IF THE TREAT IN THE HAND IS MERELY AN ILLUSION? OH DEAR THIS SITUATION IS CAUSING ME TO HAVE AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS.
Stay tuned this week for more Duyckinck dogs in Old New York!
Notes
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1. The Political Graveyard, “Van Cortlandt, Pierre,” http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/vanche-vandewater.html#RI5172MPC, accessed January 14, 2015; Wikipedia, “Pierre van Cortlandt,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Van_Cortlandt, accessed January 14, 2015;
2. “Oloff Stevense van Cortlandt," Geni entry, http://tinyurl.com/olr9sn2, accessed January 13, 2015; "Olaf Stevense van Cortlandt," Ancestry entry, http://tinyurl.com/pqpa5bw, accessed January 13, 2015; Wikipedia, "Pierre van Cortlandt," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Van_Cortlandt, accessed January 13, 2015; The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 1874, p. 72, http://tinyurl.com/peoa2z9; Martha Lamb, et al., History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress, Volume 1 (New York: Cosimo, Inc., 2005), p. 420, http://tinyurl.com/qcp6d8c; John Jay Du Bois, “Jay–Van Cortlandt Relationships,” http://jsdubois28.com/2014/09/07/jay-van-cortlandt-relationships, accessed January 13, 2015; RootsWeb, “Jacobus ‘Jacob’ van Cortlandt,” http://tinyurl.com/oleac9c, accessed January 14, 2015.
3. New York Historical Society Museum and Library, “De Peyster Boy, with a Dog,” object record, www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/de-peyster-boy-dog, accessed January 14, 2015.
