The patroon painters were a group of painters active in what is now New York State in the early 18th century. There were between six and seven patroon painters.[1] Baigell describes the patroon style as "a manner notable for marvelous flat-patterned clothing enlivened by assertive diagonals and vertical, broad curving planes, and simple color combinations".[1] The patroon painters are sometimes described as the first American school of art.[2]
Named after the patroons, a Dutch landowning class, the painters were active in the Hudson Valley, in cities including Schenectady, Albany, and Kingston, from roughly 1700 to 1750.[3][4] The historian James Thomas Flexner coined the term "patroon painter" in his 1945 study First Flowers of Our Wilderness, the first volume of a history of American painting.[4] The earliest painting identified as a patroon painting is dated to 1718.[5]
Some patroon paintings are thought to be the work of Pieter Vanderlyn,[6] and another painter named the "Gansevoort Limner" has also been identified with the school.[7] (The Gansevoort Limner, in turn, is sometimes identified with Vanderlyn.[8]) Patroon painters are known mainly for portraits.[9] Ruby notes that patroon painting is often thought to be influenced by English portrait painting—itself influenced by earlier Dutch antecedents.[10]
- ^ a b Baigell, Matthew (1971). A History of American Painting. Praeger Publishers. p. 30. OCLC 1035595311.
- ^ Ruby 2008, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Vlach 1988, p. 107.
- ^ a b Ebert & Ebert 1975, p. 23.
- ^ Ruby 2008, p. 28.
- ^ Ebert & Ebert 1975, p. 24.
- ^ Morgan, Ann Lee, ed. (2007). The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists. Oxford University Press. p. 283. ISBN 978-0-19-989150-4. OCLC 181102756.
- ^ Caldwell, John; Roque, Oswaldo Rodriguez; Johnson, Dale T. (March 1, 1994). American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 10. ISBN 0-870-99244-9.
- ^ Vlach 1988, p. 108.
- ^ Ruby 2008, pp. 27, 44.