From the colonial period in North America to the peculiar American painting, the visual arts in the United States experienced several phases, inspired by the European sense of art. In search of fulfillment of need for a history, many artists managed to create their own sense of art although inspired by Europe. Sir Godfrey Kneller and Sir Joshua Reynolds were two important European painters that had made significant impressions on this artistic evolution.
The most attractive portraits produced in the New York region during the entire colonial period were those of the six or seven patroon painters, as they are called, who served the powerful old Dutch landowners between 1710 and 1735 (Craven 69). In these the subject is usually painted full-length, or nearly full-length, against a green landscape. The faces are obscure and not individual, almost without a character; it is through the beauty of the bright colors and the excellent compositions that these portraits are outstanding. Engravings of the Mrs. Duyckinck, one of the artists who imported mezzotint technique from Europe, have become obsolete; the figures appear weightless, and this weightlessness goes well with the mood of innocence typically communicated through the scene as a whole.
Patroon painters mostly depended on mezzotints which were known as English engravings then. By means of mezzotints, Godfrey Kneller took his part in the new continent's artistic impressions. For example, John Smith created several plates of Kneller's works, among which there is Lord Buckhurst and Lady Sackville (Fig. 1.1). Having been impressed by the works of him, Smith also made plates of the family members of Kneller, strange enough not Kneller's. "Kneller's relationship with the mezzotinter John Smith elucidate the importance of collaboration between portrait painters and reproductive engravers in the late 17th century "(Philips 338). Many mezzotinters, like Robert White, R.