Historical
JOHN VANDERLYN (1775–1852)
Portrait of Matthew Persen, 1801
Charcoal on paper, 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed (at lower left of image): J Vanderlyn; (at bottom of image): Matthew Persen; (at lower right of image): Decemr 1801
EXHIBITED: Kennedy Galleries, New York, 1967, American Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolors, Part One: Works of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, p. 64 no. 104 illus., and records date incorrectly as “1802”
EX COLL.: Matthew Persen, Kingston, New York; and by descent; probably to [Fred Johnston, Kingston, New York]; [probably] to [Kennedy Galleries, New York]; [Paul Magriel, New York]; to Robert S. Pirie, New York, until 2015; to sale, Sotheby’s, New York, December 5, 2015, Property from the Collection of Robert S. Pirie, III: Fine and Decorative Arts, no. 218 illus. in color
In America Vanderlyn occasionally executed portrait drawings like those that he had done in Paris. In December 1801, for example, he drew Matthew Persen, a resident of Vanderlyn’s native Kingston, New York, which follows exactly the same format as he had used the year before in his portraits of Robert Skinner, Robert Fulton, Joel Barlow, and other members of the American community in Paris.
Matthew Persen, also known as Matthewis, lived in a stone house, parts of which date as early as 1661, which still stands at 74 John Street, at the corner of Crown Street in Kingston, now in the Stockade National Historic District. Among Vanderlyn’s patrons in Kingston were the descendants of a number of people who had earlier sat for John’s grandfather, the so-called “Patroon” painter Pieter Vanderlyn. Indeed, among Pieter Vanderlyn’s subjects were Jennetje Person and her daughter Saretje Persen, who were ancestors of Matthew Persen.
There are two early inscriptions on the back of the drawing, and another on a separate piece of paper that descended with the drawing. None are by Vanderlyn, but all are in the same hand. The longer inscription states that “Persen was the Brother of Cornelius Persen who was the father of Elizabeth who married Cornelius VanBuren, who was the father of John VanBuren, who was the father of Daniel J. VanBuren.” The inscription was likely added after the subject’s death in 1819 as it further informs us that Persen’s house is now owned by Hiram Radcliffe,” and that “Matthew was a bachelor.” A second inscription reading “From the Catsbaan House” may suggest that the portrait was not done in Kingston, where both artist and subject lived in close proximity, but rather in Catsbaan (also, Caatsbaan, Katsbaan, and Kaatsbaan), a hamlet between Saugerties and Catskill, in Ulster County, New York, which was initially settled by Dutch farmers before 1730. Or is it possible that after Persen’s death it was inherited by someone living in Kaatsbaan, and that the inscription simply means that when it ultimately changed hands, it was recorded as having come “From the Catsbaan House.”
