Career
He lived both in New Amsterdam/New York and New Amstel/New Castle. There is archival evidence of Couturier"s life which indicated guild membership in Leiden before emigrating and producing some works painted in New Amsterdam. In 1925 an exhibition of portraits of early Americans was held in New York by the gentlemen"s arts and literature club called the Century Association.
At this exhibition an oil portrait was shown of Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt (father of the 17th century mayor of New York Stephanus Van Cortlandt) that at that time was attributed to Couturier.
This prompted the New York art collector Thomas B. Clarke to purchase it, who later showed it in 1928 as part of his collection. According to its current provenance record in the National Gallery of Art, the attribution to Couturier has since been changed to "Unknown man by unknown 17th century French painter".
