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This large, imposing portrait is the earliest full-size portrait of a woman in colonial America.  Ariaantje Coeymans was born in Albany in 1672.  Her father was Barent Pieterse Coeymans, a wealthy merchant, landowner and founder of Coeymans, New York.  In 1723, at the age of 51, she married 28-year-old David Verplanck of Albany.  This painting was probably commissioned as a wedding portrait.  The necklace of corn kernel beads she wears may be a reference to the Native American corn ground in the Coeymans' gristmill.

Nehemiah Patridge was an itinerant New England portrait painter who work at intervals in the Albany-Schenectady area between 1718 and 1725.  His portraits represent members of the powerful patrician families of the area, including Schuylers, Wendells, Ten Broecks, Van Schaicks, Sanders and Livingstons.

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Ariaantje Coeymans Verplanck (1672-1743) [Mrs. David Verplanck]
Attributed to Nehemiah Partridge (1683-c. 1737)
Albany County, oil on canvas, c. 1722
AIHA Collection: Bequest of Gertrude Watson

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