called Mrs. Clarke

This portrait is known as “Mrs. Clarke,” but it is unclear why. She has also previously been identified as a Governess, Mrs. Bickerton, and Mary Todd. She cannot be firmly identified. She descended with the portrait called Mr. Ainsworth in the Moore family at Chelsea Plantation.

Dimensions: 29 3/4 x 24 3/4 in. (75.57 x 62.87 cm.)

The portrait shows a woman who appears to hold a bouquet of flowers and a piece of fruit. She has a drape over her shoulder and flowers in her hair. She is inside a painted oval frame.

See: Graham Hood, Charles Bridges and William Dering: Two Virginia Painters, 1735-1750 (1975), 118, fn.80; FARL