Artist/Maker

Haidt, John Valentine

Place Made

Date Made

1755-1765

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

HOA 29 5/8; WOA 25 1/8

Accession Number

P-80

Description

A painting of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and John the Baptist. Painting depicts Mary in red holding the standing baby Jesus with his left foot in her left hand. John the Baptist is shown as a young boy at lower left. The frame is wide, wooden, and modern with a painted gold border on the inside.

Artist Biography

ARTIST: John Valentine Haidt was a Moravian artist and evangelist, born in Danzig, Germany on October 4, 1700. As the son of a goldsmith, John Valentine learned that trade initially from his father, Andreas Haidt, a goldsmith for Emperor Frederick I. He later attended the Royal Academy in Berlin before traveling and studying painting in Venice, Rome, Paris, and London. When he was forty years of age he joined the Moravian church. In 1754 he immigrated to America, was ordained a minister of the church, and began to preach in Pennsylvania even as he continued to paint. Although Haidt painted portraits and is known to have painted landscapes, his religious paintings are among the earliest of that genre created in the American colonies. Recent research suggests that Haidt taught American born painter, Benjamin West (1738-1820) when he was preaching in Philadelphia in 1754-55. West told a friend that a “Mr. Hide (Haidt), a German, gave him instruction.”

Haidt died in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, January, 18, 1780. In his memoir he wrote, “I hardly need to mention that I have painted, because almost all of the congregations have some of my work, which the dear Savior also let be a blessing to many a heart.”

Credit Line

Wachovia Historical Society Colection