Ann Fitzhugh Rose (Mrs. Robert Rose, 1721-1789)

Ann Fitzhugh was the daughter of Henry and Susannah Cooke Fitzhugh of Bedford. She married the Scottish emigrant Reverend Robert Rose. Her daughter was Susannah Rose Lawson (Mrs. Gavin Lawson). Robert Rose died in 1751. The couple had lived at Bear Garden in Albemarle County but she probably relocated to Stafford County following his death. The portrait may have descended with that of her daughter and son-in-law, as they were together by 1946.

Dimensions: 30 1/4 x 24 3/4 in. (76.84 x 62.87 cm.)

The subject wears a dark purple dress with a white stomacher. She wears a fichu and a white cap. She sits in a wooden chair. Her arms are crossed in her lap and she holds a round snuff box. On reverse of canvas: “Mrs Ann Rose. AEtat 50/ J. Hefselius Pinx 1771”

See: Colonial Williamsburg eMuseum; Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 269.