Portrait of a Man, Member of the Van Keuren Family

The Van Keurens were a large and prosperous family of Dutch origin who settled in Ulster County, New York, in the 17th century. By the 19th century they were wealthy landowners, some of whom owned slaves (full emancipation for slaves in New York did not occur until 1827). As members of the rural aristocracy, the Van Keurens commissioned portraits as emblems of their status, as well as to memorialize themselves for future generations. The itinerant painter Ammi Phillips, one of the most important and prolific of "naive" portraitists in 19th-century America, traveled through western Connecticut and Massachusetts before moving to Rhinebeck, New York, directly across the Hudson River from Ulster County. His clear and forthright style, with plain background and expressively articulated figures, would have appealed to families like the Van Keurens.