Barrister Dutton

The subject of this portrait remains unidentified. It was called “Barrister Dutton” when Colonial Williamsburg acquired it from Byrd family descendants. A “Mr. Dutton” was left to William Powell Byrd in Mary Willing Byrd’s will. He was likely an English acquaintance of William Byrd II’s.

Dimensions: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.)

The subject wears a gray wig and a blue robe lined with pink. He is inside a painted oval frame.

See: Mary Willing Byrd, “The Will of Mrs. Mary Willing Byrd, of Westover, 1813, with a List of the Westover Portraits,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 6, no. 4 (April 1899): 345-358; David Meschutt, “William Byrd and His Portrait Collection,” MESDA Journal 14, no. 1 (May 1988): 18-47; Colonial Williamsburg eMuseum