Peter Luyster

Artist Daniel Hendrickson

Periodca. 1760 - 1770

MediumOil on canvas backed with a wood panel

Dimensions14.3 × 12.5 in. (36.3 × 31.8 cm)

InscribedFaint pencil inscription in the upper left, "Peter."

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineMarshall P. Blankarn Purchasing Fund, 1976

Object number1976.16.2

DescriptionMale with balding long brown hair, blue eyes, and a pronounced chin, facing left and wearing a collarless dark blue jacket with light and dark blue buttons, and a white shirt and stock. The subject is placed slightly off-center to the right. In the left background is depicted a red and white wicker basket filled with eggs. The background is medium and light brown.
Curatorial RemarksThe Luyster farm abutted that of Daniel Hendrickson on the east and south. The two were life-long friends who occasionally engaged in business transactions with each other. Pieter Luyster apparently specialized in sending fresh eggs to market in New York City. Surviving family papers confirm this part of his agricultural activities. The basket of eggs in the portrait may by symbolic of his poultry business. It could also be a humorous reference to the subject's receded hairline. This painting is attributed to Daniel Hendrickson as it descended through that family to James P. Hendrickson accompanied by the artist's self portrait. Both were sold to Edna M. Netter, a local antiques dealer, who in turn sold them to the Association.NotesPeter or Pieter Luyster was born in Monmouth County in 1718, the year after his father Johannes Luyster acquired a farm of 189 acres in the Holland section of Middletown. In 1756, Luyster married his first cousin Anne Luyster (1726 - 1799) of Long Island, NY. They became the parents of three children. Peter Luyster died on 12 February 1810, just short of his ninety-first birthday. His descendants continued to own the family farm until 1943.

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