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All Interested Collectors Note

Collectors, here is an opportunity to own an original painting or drawing by one of America's leading historical artists. Each work is meticulously researched and masterfully crafted. All of these works are destined to become an important part of the visual documentation of New York State and American history. Many of these paintings have already achieved a level of importance in the museum world. For specific information regarding a particular work e-mail the artist at info@lftantillo.com.

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“Creekside Farm,” depicts a Dutch farmstead of the mid to late 17^th century in upstate New York. Several such structures are known to have been built along the Papscanee Creek about 6 miles south of the present day city of Albany, New York. The artist has combined the common elements of rural vernacular architecture of that time and incorporated a square or “stolp” barn. The distinct shape of the barn’s roof can be seen in many period buildings including both the first Dutch church of Albany and the first Dutch church of Schenectady. The vessel docked at the farm is a small schallop of approximately 30 feet commonly used for the transport of farm goods and trading supplies in the Hudson River.

This painting depicts the Dutch West India Company ship, Trouw, as it approaches Manhattan circa 1661. The larger merchant vessel, carrying new colonists and cargo from the Netherlands, has crossed paths with a small skiff inbound for the Hudson River. Governor Pieter Stuyvesant’s “Great House” and the Church within Fort Amsterdam are the most prominent skyline buildings. The East River can be seen on the right side of the painting. Trouw was one of several ships that made numerous crossings from Holland to Manhattan in the mid 17th century. Although it can never be determined with certainty exactly what this ship looked like some conclusions about its size and therefore its design can be drawn from the fragmentary records of the cargos it carried on its transatlantic voyages.

Manhattan, 1660
oil on canvas, 20 x 42 in., (framed 28 x 50 in.)

Sometime around 1670 a surveyor from Belgium named Jacques Cortelyou created a birdseye view of Manhattan. His map provides us with the only detailed contemporary image of New York City as the Dutch community of New Amsterdam. Cortelyou’s drawing, commonly referred to as “the Costello Plan”, survives to this day in a museum in Florence, Italy. The first challenge I faced was how to correct the Costello Plan to get it to dimensionally agree with the actual scale and street layout of modern Manhattan. I accomplished this by locating an early survey of the city made with precision instruments. I used a detailed survey of lower Manhattan produced in the late 1890s. This scaled site map was very well drawn and contained numerous property line measurements. My hope was that some of the street pattern of Dutch Manhattan had survived and would be visible in the latter map. I was pleased to discover that most of what I was looking for was there.

 Once the Costello Plan was redrawn to scale I had a realistic base on which to set adjusted property lines and buildings. It’s important to note that a plan is just a footprint of an object. No matter how carefully crafted and researched this two-dimensional representation may be problems instantly present themselves when speculative buildings emerge from the ground plane. Relying on many years of architectural experience, I try to imagine what influences the environment and the individual resident would have on the overall look of a period structure. Although much of the visualizing process is conjectural, my decisions are based on closely examining factual data, no matter how fragmentary.

The ruin of a mill near the southern shore of Lake Luzerne provided the basis for this fanciful painting. Stone and brick walls reflect eerie dreamlike colors in moonlight, particularly in a snow-covered landscape. The painting “Adirondack Ruin” presents a location of quiet dignity where the ghosts of the past stand vigil to a vanishing history of 19^th century Adirondack life.

Fred Bassett built a cabin at the terminus of the Utowana River in the 1870’s. At that time there existed a short carry or portage connecting the Marion and the Utowana Rivers. Bassett’s cabin provided lodging for travelers making their way, via the rivers, from Blue Mountain Lake to Raquette Lake. This atmospheric painting depicts life in the Adirondack wilderness of 1880. The lodgers have settled in for the evening. Their guideboats await dawn and the short carry to the next river and the adventure beyond.

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L. F. Tantillo, Fine Art
e-mail: copperkeel@aol.com