Don Quixote & John Vanderbank

Dissolute, Drunk & a Debtor-but a painter & illustrator of great skill

John Vanderbank- Don Quixote Addressing the Goatherds 1730

Don Quixote occupied the artist for the greater part of his short working life.

John Vanderbank was a rare painter for his time who had many commissions and fame. Vanderbank's portraits of royalty, leading aristocrats and eminent persons of his day are found in every major art gallery around the world. However, he was “more in debt than out of it” and his loose morals blasted his reputation.¹ He died at 45.

Vanderbank competed with William Hogarth to secure the rights to illustrate"Don Quixote de la Mancha.” This seems to be the first time illustration was considered as important as text in English publishing.²

Many of Vanderbank’s illustrations for Don Quixote are owned by the Morgan Library and Museum.

Toward the end of his short life Vanderbank paid his rent in drawing and paintings of Don Quixote. It was said of Vanderbank, had he not blasted his career by profligacy, "he might had all before him.”³

He was especially good at horses.

George I, Vanderbank's 1726 equestrian portrait of the first Hanoverian king, Royal Collection

1. Hammelmann, H.A. (1968). "John Vanderbank 1694-1737." The Book Collector 17 no 3 (autumn): 285-299.

2. Hammelmann, H. A. “John Vanderbank’s ‘Don Quixote.’” Master Drawings 7, no. 1 (1969): 3–74.

3. Ibid.