Isham Randolph (1685-1742)

Artist: Unknown
Date: 1729

Isham Randolph was the son of William Randolph I and Mary Isham Randolph of Turkey Island. He was a prominent ship captain who eventually settled at Dungeness Plantation around 1730. He married Jane Rogers in London. A modern inscription on the back of the canvas states that this portrait was painted in 1729 but it is unclear where that date comes from.

Dimensions: 34 x 26 in. (86.36 x 66.04 cm.)

The subject wears a gray jacket and waistcoat and light gray wig. His right hand is tucked into his waistcoat and a hat is tucked under his left arm. There are two birthmarks under his left eye. He is turned three-quarters to his right.

See: Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 80; Wayne Craven, Colonial American Portraiture (1986), 230.

Family: Randolph
Decade: 1720s
Credits: Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, 1970.26.