John Durand (fl. circa 1765-1782)

John Durand (fl. circa 1765-1782) was a preeminent painter of wealthy New York families during the second half of the 18^th century. His career can be traced from Virginia to New York, Connecticut, and even Bermuda until 1782, when his name appears on a tax list for Dinwiddie County in Virginia.¹ He is first documented in Virginia in 1765 and was painting in New York the following year, when he portrayed James Beekman’s six children. His name appears in Beekman’s account book as “Monsieur Duran,” a notation that has led to conjecture that the artist was of French heritage. In 1768, he portrayed merchant Garret Rapalje and his family. The painting of the four Rapalje children is the artist’s only known group portrait and endures as one of his most successful works.² In April 1968, he advertised in the New-York Gazette, or The Weekly Post-Boy that he had “from infancy endeavored to qualify himself in the Art of historical Painting.”³ Like other artists of the period, including those with some European training, Durand aspired to this genre, which, regardless of the importance given to it by artists, had difficulty finding patronage in colonial America. As no painting of historical subjects by Durand are known, he appears to have been unsuccessful in this ambition.

Durand’s style was changeable throughout his career. His portraits relied on a sensitive color sense and linear treatment for facial modeling and decorative appeal. The palette ranged from earth tones to rococo pinks and blues. The Virginia portraits, in particular, appear “dry and hard,” as his nephew Robert Sully characterized them, when compared to the more naturalistic and decorative New York portraits.⁴ Despite the changes in palette, there are certain consistent conventions in Durand’s portraits. These include a flower upheld in one hand of female sitters, often near the bosom; flowers turned on their stems to reveal star shaped leaves; and a particular display of fingers, often with one or two lifted and separated from the rest.

All of those conventions are displayed in the portrait offered here of a bejeweled aristocratic woman in a blue silk dress. She is adorned with a headdress, blushed cheeks and a profusion of blooms in her hand. A similar portrait of a woman by Durand possibly of Mrs. Fitzhugh Greene was sold in These Rooms, Visual Grace: Important American Folk Art from the Collection of Ralph O. Esmerian, alongside the portrait of her husband possibly Captain Fitzhugh Greene, January 25, 2014, sale 9106, lot 606.

¹ Franklin W. Kelly, “The Portraits of John Durand,” The Magazine Antiques (November 1982): 1080-1087.

² The painting is in the collection of the New-York Historical Society and illustrated in ibid, p. 1081.

³ Rita S. Gottesman, comp., The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1726-1776: Advertisements and News Items from New York City Newspapers (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1938): pp. 1-2.

⁴ Kelly, “Portraits of John Durand,” p. 1084.