1. John Vanderlyn was an American neoclassicist painter.
11 Facts About John Vanderlyn
1. 2.
John Vanderlyn was employed by a print seller in New York, and was first instructed in art by Archibald Robinson, a Scotsman who was afterwards one of the directors of the American Academy of the Fine Arts.
3.
John Vanderlyn 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.
4.
John Vanderlyn was a protege of Aaron Burr, who in 1796 sent Vanderlyn to Paris, where he studied for five years.
5.
In 1801, John Vanderlyn returned to the United States, where he lived in the home of Burr, then the vice president under Thomas Jefferson.
6.
John Vanderlyn returned to Paris in 1803, visiting England in 1805, where he painted the Death of Jane McCrea for Joel Barlow.
7.
John Vanderlyn then went to Rome, where he painted his picture of Marius amid the Ruins of Carthage, which was shown in Paris, and obtained the Napoleon gold medal there.
8.
John Vanderlyn exhibited panoramas and built The Rotunda in New York City, which displayed panoramas of Paris, Athens, Mexico, Versailles, and some battle-pieces; but neither his portraits nor the panoramas brought him financial success, partly because he worked very slowly.
9.
In 1825, John Vanderlyn was one of the founders of the National Academy of Design, and taught at its school.
10.
John Vanderlyn was the first American to study in France instead of in England, and to acquire accurate draughtsmanship.
11.
John Vanderlyn is buried in Wiltwyck Rural Cemetery in Kingston, NY.