Dr. Hibberd
After John Durand, 1779. Oil on canvas. 30 x 25 inches.
Private collection, Devon, Pennsylvania

John Durand (active 1765–1782) was a colonial American portraitist. With John Mare, Abraham Delanoy, and Lawrence Kilburn, he was one of a number of portraitists living and working in New York City during the 1760’s. His approach to painting was linear and decorative, and suggests training as a decorative painter. Like many other painters of the era he saw no need to restrict himself to representational painting; a 1770 advertisement from The Virginia Gazette reveals that he would "paint, gild, and varnish wheel carriages; and put coats of arms, or ciphers upon them."