Maria Byrd Carter (Mrs. Landon Carter, 1727-1744)

Maria Byrd Carter was the daughter of William Byrd II and Maria Taylor Byrd of Westover. She married Landon Carter of Sabine Hall in 1742. This portrait descended from Sabine Hall and Landon Carter. Another version of this portrait descended from Westover and the Byrd family.

Dimensions: 46 1/2 x 37 1/2 in. (118.11 x 95.25 cm.)

The subject wears a silver wrap dress with a small jeweled clasp and a blue drape. She wears pearls in her hair. Her left arm rests on a stone pillar and holds a small flower. A large vase of flowers is on the pillar next to her. A window is to her right. The size of the canvas is unusual.

See: Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 255; Graham Hood, Charles Bridges and William Dering: Two Virginia Painters, 1735-1750 (1975), 114; MESDA Database, S-4037