Anne Randolph Harrison (Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, d. 1767)

Anne Randolph Harrison was the daughter of William Randolph III and Anne Harrison Randolph of Wilton. She married Benjamin Harrison of Brandon in ca. 1763. The portrait descended with Harrison descendants at Brandon until the twentieth century. The portrait has been attributed to Francis Cotes, an artist working in England. If correct, the subject made an undocumented trip to London. The only known portrait of her husband dates to 1775 and was painted by Charles Willson Peale. It is also possible that Cotes painted the portrait based on a miniature portrait or other visual representation of the subject. An undated and unattributed miniature portrait identified as Anne Randolph Harrison has descended in her family and remains in a private collection. The miniature bears some resemblance to the oil portrait from the neck up. However, it is also possible that the miniature was painted after the oil portrait. Intriguingly, her husband wears an unidentified miniature portrait in his portrait. The subject was also painted as a young girl by John Wollaston. That portrait descended in the Randolph family at Wilton.

Dimensions: 30 1/4 x 24 3/4in. (76.8 x 62.9 cm.)

The subject wears a white dress with a pink sash around her waist and a blue drape around her left shoulder. She has pearls in her hair and wears a double strand pearl necklace tied with a pink ribbon. She wears a pearl earring. She is inside of a painted oval frame.

See: Colonial Williamsburg eMuseum