Daniel Hendrickson Self-Portrait

Periodca. 1770

MediumOil on canvas, backed originally with a wood panel

Dimensions18.25 × 16.25 in. (46.4 × 41.3 cm)

InscribedInscribed on the reverse of the wood panel, "Daniel Hendrickson's Likeness / my father / Catherine Hendrickson."

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineMarshall P. Blankarn Purchasing Fund, 1976

Object number1976.16.1

DescriptionMale with long gray hair ending in curls (possibly a powdered wig) and blue eyes facing right, wearing a collarless blue coat, dark blue or black waistcoat, and white shirt with stock. The background is a lighter blue. In its original bolection moulding frame and backed with a wood panel.
Curatorial RemarksDaniel Hendrickson's business papers reveal that he had come in contact with Gerardus Duyckinck II of New York, and John Watson of Perth Amboy, both well-known artists. In fact, Watson produced two similar but not identical portrait miniatures of Hendrickson in his typical style of pencil on vellum with wash touches. One of the miniatures is signed by Watson and datable to 1758.NotesDaniel Hendrickson was born in Middletown, NJ, on 5 January 1723, the youngest of eleven children of Daniel Hendrickson and Catherine Van Dyke. When Daniel Sr. died in 1728, he left the homestead farm to his youngest son Daniel, to be held in trust until he reached the age of twenty-one years. In 1743, Hendrickson Jr. married Catherine Covenhoven, daughter of Cornelius Covenhoven and Margaretta Schanck of Holmdel. Hendrickson became very successful in many business ventures. He expanded his land holdings from 154 acres to more than 800, making his estate the largest in Middletown Township at the time. In addition to farming, Hendrickson ran a tan yard, bred and trained race horses, owned grist and saw mills, set up a distillery, and established a brickyard and earthenware pottery. Active involvement in the local Reformed Dutch Church earned him the nickname of "Dominie Daniel." In 1758, he published a sermon in Dutch. Hendrickson also became an accomplished musician, owning a violin, a spinet, and installing a pipe organ in his house in 1752. As an artist, he is known to have painted several large and small portraits of his immediate family, prominent individuals, and neighbors. Scattered references in his account books and other business papers indicate that Hendrickson also ornamented a tavern sign, church pew doors, a chaise, furniture, and architectural woodwork. This highly talented individual suffered from extreme corpulence toward the end of his extraordinary life. He died very suddenly on 21 June 1778, and was interred in the family graveyard on the homestead farm.

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