John Vanderlyn

John Vanderlyn (1775-1852) was one of the first American painters to venture beyond portraiture. He executed the first large-scale nude in the United States and various history paintings, some showing neoclassic influence.

John Vanderlyn was born in Kingston, N.Y., on Oct. 15, 1775. After studying painting for a year under Gilbert Stuart in Philadelphia, Vanderlyn became the protégé of Aaron Burr, who sent him to Paris in 1796. The first American painter to study in Paris, Vanderlyn entered the studio of François Antoine Vincent, a neoclassicist who emphasized correct drawing at the expense of expressive color. Vanderlyn remained in Paris until 1801, when he had to return home because of a lack of funds.

In America, Vanderlyn looked upon portraiture as a low form of art and accepted such commissions only to support himself. He executed a number of fine portraits and some views of Niagara Falls. In 1805 he returned to Europe with the financial support of the American Academy; he stayed in Rome until 1808 and then lived in Paris until 1815.

Vanderlyn's Marius Viewing the Ruins of Carthage (1807) won a gold medal in Paris in 1808. The scene shows the melancholy attached to time's passing, a theme that was then quite popular: Marius, the fallen hero, broods among the ruins of a once mighty city. For the head of Marius, Vanderlyn copied a Roman bust; and the figure, in proper neoclassic fashion, was done with a hard, wiry outline and ivory flesh tones. Ariadne (1812), combining neoclassic linearism with the Italianate qualities of recumbent Venuses of Titian and Giorgione, shows a good understanding of anatomy, but the figure stands out too strongly from the landscape.

On his return to New York, Vanderlyn soon found that Europeans appreciated him far more than his own countrymen, for portraiture was still the only kind of painting widely accepted in America. In 1816 he built a personal museum in the form of a rotunda with the help of $6, 000 contributed by 112 of his supporters. There he exhibited not only his paintings and copies from the nude but an enormous canvas executed in 1818-1819: the Palace and Gardens of Versailles. Painted somewhat illusionistically, this is one of the several "panoramas" made in the early 19th century and the only one still existing.

Vanderlyn died in Kingston, N.Y., on Sept. 23, 1852. Because of his neoclassic training, his paintings have a coolness and detachment when compared with the more emotive work of Washington Allston.

Further Reading

The only monograph on Vanderlyn, which contains no illustrations, is Marius Schoonmaker, John Vanderlyn, Artist, 1775-1852 (1950); it consists of brief biographical essays with quotations from Vanderlyn's correspondence, especially with Aaron Burr.

Additional Sources

Mondello, Salvatore, The private papers of John Vanderlyn (1775-1852) American portrait painter, Lewiston, N.Y., USA: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990. □

John Vanderlyn , 1776–1852, American portrait and historical painter, b. Kingston, N.Y. Under the patronage of Aaron Burr he studied with Gilbert Stuart and in Paris. From 1796 to 1815 much of his life was spent in Paris and in Rome. He achieved a high reputation with such compositions as Marius amid the Ruins at Carthage (M. H. de Young Memorial Mus., San Francisco), which was awarded a gold medal by Napoleon, and Ariadne (Pa. Acad. of the Fine Arts). He was able to assist his former patron when Burr fled to Paris in disgrace. Vanderlyn returned to America in 1815. His ambitious historical compositions found no market, and his admirable portraits were so slowly executed that few had the patience to pose for him. Late in life he was commissioned to paint the Landing of Columbus (Capitol, Washington, D.C.), but was obliged to employ assistants to execute it. He died impoverished and embittered. A self-portrait is in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. The Senate House Museum, Kingston, N.Y., has numerous paintings attributed to Vanderlyn.

Vanderlyn, John (b Kingston, NY, 15 Oct. 1775; d Kingston, 24 Sept. 1852). American painter, active mainly in and around New York. Between 1796 and 1815 he lived in Europe (apart from brief visits to America) and his style was closer to mainstream Neoclassicism and Romanticism than that of almost any other American painter of his generation. He was the first American painter to study in Paris and also worked in Rome. His best-known painting is Ariadne Asleep on Naxos (1812–14, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia), a reclining figure in the tradition of the Venuses of Giorgione and Titian that is regarded as the finest American nude before Eakins. Although such works won him considerable renown in France, he was much less successful in America, where he worked mainly as a portraitist, and he died poor and embittered.

Vanderlyn, John (1775–1852). American painter, active mainly in or near New York. Between 1796 and 1815 he lived in Europe (apart from brief visits to America) and his style was closer to mainstream Neoclassicism and Romanticism than that of almost any other American painter of his generation. He was the first American painter to study in Paris and also worked in Rome. His best-known painting is Ariadne Asleep on Naxos (1812–14, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia), a reclining figure in the tradition of the Venuses of Giorgione and Titian that is regarded as the finest American nude before Eakins. Although such works won him considerable renown in France, he was much less successful in America, where he worked mainly as a portraitist, and he died poor and embittered.