Henry Fitzhugh (1614-1664)

This portrait was painted by John Hesselius and is a copy of a missing original portrait of the subject. The portrait was commissioned by the subject’s grandson or great grandson, both named Henry Fitzhugh. The portrait hung at Bedford Plantation through most of the nineteenth century. The subject never came to Virginia, but his portrait was brought to Virginia by his son, William Fitzhugh (1651-1701), who immigrated around 1670.

Dimensions: 30 1/4 x 25 in. (76.84 x 63.5 cm.)

The subject wears a plain brown robe and is inside a painted oval. He is turned towards his left. Signed on back behind relining: “Henry Fitzhugh Son of William Fitzhugh of Bedford Aetatis 20 1634 Copd by John Hesselius 1751.”

See: Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 73, 256-259; Richard K. Doud, “The Fitzhugh Portraits by John Hesselius,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 75, no. 2 (April 1967): 159-173; Wayne Craven, Colonial American Portraiture (1986), 183-186.