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John Fitzhugh (1727-1809)
Artist: John Hesselius
Date: 1751
John Fitzhugh lived at Belle Air. He was the son of Henry Fitzhugh (1687-1758) and Susanna Cocke Fitzhugh of Bedford. He married Alice Thornton in 1746.
Reference: “3 large family pictures” appear in his probate inventory under “Household furniture,” 1809, Gunston Hall Probate Inventory Database. Original in Stafford County Deed Book AA, pp.19-21.
Dimensions: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.)
The subject wears white wig, brown coat, and dark green waistcoat with gold trim. He appears in a painted oval. His right hand is tucked into his waistcoat and he is turned towards his right. Inscription on reliner, probably copied from original: “John Fitzhugh son of/ Henry Fitzhugh/ AEtatis 24/ John Hesselius/ 1751”
See: MESDA Database, S-5766; Richard K. Doud, “The Fitzhugh Portraits by John Hesselius,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 75, no. 2 (April 1967): 159-173.
Family: Fitzhugh
Location: Belle Air Plantation
Decade: 1750s
Attributes: manbrown jacketshirt rufflesthree-quarterpainted oval framedatedsignedgreen waistcoatgold trimmed waistcoatwhite white
Credits: Private collection, MESDA Object Database, record S-5766, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA), Winston-Salem, NC.