Lucy Gray Briggs (Mrs. Howell Briggs, 1711-1778)

One of only two portraits attributed to Cosmo Medici. He also painted her husband, Howell Briggs. They were the parents of Gray Briggs. Their son, Gray Briggs, recorded paying Medici for two portraits and miniatures in 1769 but those portraits are unlocated.

Dimensions: 22 x 19 in. (55.88 x 48.26 cm.)

The portrait represents a woman wearing a fichu with pale blue stripes over a brown dress, and a cap trimmed with a blue ribbon. Inscribed: Cosmo Medici Pinxit September 24, 1772. The portrait is not a standard size.

See: Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 279-280; FARL