called Anne Constable Lee (Mrs. Richard Lee I, 1621-1706)

The family history identifies a portrait subject as Anne Constable Lee, who married Richard Lee I, since at least 1790. The portrait descended in the Lee family at Stratford Hall (built ca. 1730s-40s). However, stylistically, the portrait is unlikely to date to the 1640s-1660s, when the subject was still a younger woman. It is possible that this represents another member of the Lee family. There is a strong possibility that this portrait was painted in England.

Reference: “Stratford whose delightful shades formed the comfort and retirement of my wise and Philosophic grandfather with what a mixture of awe and pious gratification did it afford me sitting on one of the sophas of the great Hall, to trace the family resemblance in the portraits of all my dear mother’s forefathers–her father & mother grandfather & grandmother and so upwards for four generations! Their pictures have been drawn by the most eminent English artists and in large gilt frames adorn one of the most spacious & beautiful Halls I have seen.” from Thomas Lee Shippen to William Shippen, 29 September 1790. Shippen Family Papers.

Dimensions: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.)

The subject wears a dark orange wrap dress with blue drapery around her. She is inside of a painted oval frame.

See: Edmund Jennings Lee, Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892: Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of the Descendants of Colonel Richard Lee (1895).