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John Vanderlyn (October 18, 1775September 23, 1852) was an American painter.
He was employed by a print seller in New York, and was first instructed in art by Archibald Robinson (1765–1835), a Scotsman who was afterwards one of the directors of the American Academy of the Fine Arts. He went to Philadelphia, where he spent time in the studio of Gilbert Stuart and copied some of Stuart's portraits, including one of Aaron Burr, who placed him under Gilbert Stuart as a pupil.
He was a protégé of Aaron Burr, who in 1796 sent Vanderlyn to Paris, where he studied for five years.
Vanderlyn returned to the United States in 1815, and painted portraits of various eminent men, including James Monroe, John C. Calhoun, Governor Joseph C. Yates, Governor George Clinton, James Madison, Robert R Livingston (New York Historical Society), Andrew Jackson, and Zachary Taylor. In 1834, he completed a posthumous full-length portrait of George Washington for the U.S. House of Representatives, based on Gilbert Stuart's 1796 Lansdowne portrait.
He also exhibited panoramas and built The Rotunda in New York City, which displayed panoramas of Paris, Athens, Mexico, Versailles (by himself), and some battle-pieces; but neither his portraits nor the panoramas brought him financial success, partly because he worked very slowly.
In 1825, Vanderlyn was one of the founders of the National Academy of Design, and taught at its school.
In 1842, through friendly influences, he was commissioned by Congress to paint the Landing of Columbus for the Rotunda of the United States Capitol. Going to Paris, he hired a French artist, who, it is said, did most of the work. It was engraved for the United States five-dollar banknotes. This painting was later reproduced in an engraving used on the Columbian 2c Postage Issue of 1893.
Vanderlyn was the first American to study in France instead of in England. He was more academic than his fellows; but, though faithfully and capably executed, it was thought that his work was rather devoid of charm, according to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. His Landing of Columbus has been called by Appleton's Cyclopedia "hardly more than respectable."
He died in poverty at Kingston, New York, on September 23, 1852. He is buried in Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery in Kingston, NY.
Gallery
James Madison (1791)
File:John Vanderlyn - Official Portrait of Vice President Aaron Burr.jpg|New York Historical Society
Portrait of Aaron Burr (1802)
File:Theodosiaburr.jpg|New York Historical Society
Portrait of Theodosia Burr Alston (1802)
File:The Death of Jane McCrea John Vanderlyn 1804.jpeg|Wadsworth Athenaeum
The Death of Jane McCrea (1804–05)
File:John Vanderlyn - Caius Marius Amid the Ruins of Carthage - Google Art Project.jpg|Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Caius Marius Amid the Ruins of Carthage (1807)
Image:Sampson Vryling Stoddard Wilder.jpg|Worcester Art Museum
Sampson Vryling Stoddard Wilder (–1812)
File:Portrait of George Washington by John Vanderlyn.jpg|U.S. House of Representatives
Portrait of George Washington (1834)
Image:Study for Landing of Columbus by John Vanderlyn.jpg|Birmingham Museum of Art
Study for Landing of Columbus ()
File:Washington and Lafayette at the Battle of Brandywine.jpg| Washington and Lafayette at the Battle of Brandywine ()
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Categories: 1775 Births, 1852 Deaths, American People Of Dutch Descent, American Neoclassical Painters, 18th-century American Painters, 18th-century American Male Artists, American Male Painters, 19th-century American Painters, 19th-century American Male Artists, People From Kingston, New York, Painters From New York, National Academy Of Design Faculty, National Academy Of Design Members, American History Painters, Burials At Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery
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