John Vanderlyn

John Vanderlyn (1775-1852), American neoclassical painter, one of the first American artists to study in Paris. Born in Kingston, New York, Vanderlyn trained briefly with American portraitist Gilbert Stuart before being sent to Paris by his patron, American statesman Aaron Burr. The influence of French neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David is evident in Vanderlyn's Marius Among the Ruins of Carthage (1807, M. H. de Young Museum, San Francisco), which won the commendation of French emperor Napoleon I, and in several painstaking works of subjects from mythology. Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos (1814, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia) is considered one of the finest American nudes of the period. Turning to portraiture after 1820, Vanderlyn produced strong characterizations of American statesmen George Washington and James Monroe and of other famous contemporaries. See also Neoclassical Art and Architecture.