George Eskridge (d. 1735)

The portrait is roughly dated to before 1715 based on the death of his first wife. It shows stylistic similiarities to the Lyde, Corbin, and Tayloe portraits dated to the same period. George Eskridge is known for being the guardian of Mary Ball, George Washington’s mother. He married first, Rebecca Bonum (d. 1715), and second, Elizabeth Vaulx. The portrait descended in the family and appears to have stayed at Sandy Point until the late eighteenth century.

Reference: The Inventory of George Eskridge states that “in the Hall” are “2 Pictures of Col. Eskridge and former wife.” Quoted in Object file at the Virginia Historical Society.

Dimensions: 26 x 21 in. (66.04 x 53.34 cm.)

The portrait features a man wearing a drape over a dark jacket with a jeweled clasp. He wears a gray wig. He is inside a painted oval frame.

Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 82.