Johannes Schuyler Jr. (1697–1741)

ca. 1725

Oil on canvas

Overall: 30 × 25 in. (76.2 × 63.5 cm)

Bequest of Philip Schuyler

1915.10

The artist of this painting executed several portraits of the Schuyler family in the 1720s and for centuries was known simply as “the Schuyler painter.” Researchers now believe this artist was Nehemiah Partridge, one of a group of painters working along the Hudson River Valley in the early eighteenth century. Aside from the color of the sitter's coat, this portrait is nearly identical to a painting of the subject’s older brother, Philip. Both may be based on a mezzotint after Sir Godfrey Kneller’s portraits, which were popular in London a decade or so earlier. The subject was the second son of Captain Johannes Schuyler and Elizabeth (Staats) Wendel Schuyler. He married Cornelia Van Cortlandt (1698-1762) in the New York Dutch Church on October 18, 1723. The couple lived with their eleven children in Albany, where Johannes Schuyler, Jr., served as mayor and was a merchant, alderman, and Indian commissioner. His portrait was a gift to the Society from his great-great-grandson.

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