J. L. K. van Dort John Leonhard Kalenberg van Dort (1831-1898) was a Sri Lankan painter of Dutch Burgher descent. He is the first major artist in the country who perpetuated the representational idioms of the British topographical artists (Dharmasiri, 1990). Early life
J. L. K. van Dort was born on 28 July 1831 in Colombo, Sri Lanka (Dharmasiri, 1990). His father Johannes van Dort was himself an artist as well as an architect and he worked as an officer in the Civil Engineer's Department (Dharmasiri, 1990; Uragoda, 1995). Van Dort's mother was Margerita Kalenberg (Dharmasiri, 1990). The family lived in San Sebastian in Colombo (Dharmasiri, 1990). Van Dort first attended St. Paul's Parochial school in Pettah and then the Colombo Academy, the chief government school in Colombo (Dharmasiri, 1990; Uragoda, 1995). He is said to have had art lessons from Andrew Nicholl who came to Sri Lanka in 1846 as a teacher of landscape drawing, painting, scientific drawing and design to the School of Design…
