Anne Byrd Carter (Mrs. Charles Carter, 1725-1757) with two children

Anne Byrd Carter was the daughter of William Byrd II and Maria Taylor Byrd. She married Charles Carter of Cleve in 1741. Family tradition says that the portrait represents her children Landon Carter (1751-1811) and Coriolianna Carter (b. 1757). However, she had eight children born between 1741 and 1757. The subject was also painted as a child by an unknown artist and by William Dering. Her daughter Anne married John Champe in 1762.

Probable reference: John Champe’s 1775 will bequeathed to his wife, Anne Carter Champe, “four pictures drawn last by Hesselius, to-wit: Col. Charles Carter and Anne his wife, my own and the said Anne Champe.” Anne Carter Champe was the daughter of Charles Carter and Anne Byrd Carter of Cleves.

Dimensions: 42 1/2 x 35 3/4 in. (107.32 x 90.81 cm.)

The portrait represents a woman seated outdoors in a blue dress. It is trimmed in lace and has a jeweled clasp. A baby in a white gown and cap sits in her lap. Another child leans over her lap and points at his sibling. The boy wears a jacket and a drape. The group is in front of a rocky outcropping with a view to a landscape to their right. The canvas is an unusual size.

See: Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 264; King George County Wills, John Champe will, 1775, quoted in “Historical and Genealogical Notes,” William and Mary Quarterly 4, 3 (January 1896), 200; MESDA Database, S-5126