Pieter Vanderlyn is accepted by some scholars as the artist currently identified as The Gansevoort Limner. He was born in Holland about 1687 and came to New York from Curaçao around 1718. He was primarily a portrait painter. Early records and the locations in which his sitters lived indicate that he traveled frequently between Albany and Kingston, residing at various times in each city. In 1777 the British burned Kingston, forcing Vanderlyn to move to his son's home in Shawangunk, New York, where he died the following year. [This is an edited version of the artist's biography published in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]
Artist Bibliography
1921
Harris, Charles X. "Pieter Vanderlyn, Portrait Painter." New-York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin 5 (October 1921): 59-73.
1942
Hastings, Mrs. Russel. "Pieter Vanderlyn, A Hudson River Portrait Painter (1687-1778)." Antiques 42 (December 1942): 296-299.
1959
Flexner, James Thomas. "Pieter Vanderlyn, Come Home." Antiques 75 (June 1959): 546-549, 580.
1969
Black, Mary C. "The Gansevoort Limner." Antiques 96 (November 1969): 738:744.
1971
Black, Mary C. "Pieter Vanderlyn and Other Limners of the Upper Hudson." In American Painting to 1776: A Reappraisal. Edited by Ian M. G. Quimby. Charlottesville, Virginia, 1971: 234-241.
1980
Black, Mary C. "Pieter Vanderlyn, c. 1687-1778." In Lipman and Armstrong 1980, 41-45.
1992
Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 142-143.