Sir Wilfrid Lawson (1696-1737)

Sir Wilfrid Lawson was a friend of William Byrd II of Westover. A very similar portrait of William Byrd II was given to Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery. This portrait of Lawson descended in the Byrd family.

Reference: “Sir Wilfried Lawson” portrait was bequeathed to Charles Willing Byrd in Mary Willing Byrd’s will

Dimensions: 50 1/2 x 39 1/2 in. (128.3 x 101.6 cm.)

The subject wears a blue jacket with gold frogs and a gray wig with a ponytail over his right shoulder. His left hand rests on a stone pillar and his right hand is on his hip. A stone archway with a view of classical architectural elements is visible behind him.

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