Portrait of Pierre Van Cortlandt, c.1731 (oil on canvas)

Pierre Van Cortlandt (1721-1814). The artist of these full-length portraits based the elaborate backdrops, and details such as the poses and the animals, on British royal portrait prints (see illustration) that decorated colonial homes. The pictorial link between the Van Cortlandt brothers, who were born into one of the city’s wealthiest Dutch families, and British nobility suggested their great promise. Although information about John, who died in his twenties, is scarce, Pierre inherited vast properties north of Manhattan and became an ardent patriot during the Revolutionary War.