William Fitzhugh (1651-1701)

William Fitzhugh emigrated from England around 1670. He built a home at Eagle’s Nest and married Sarah Tucker. John Hesselius painted this copy of an original portrait by an unknown artist for the subject’s son, Henry Fitzhugh (1687-1758) of Bedford, in 1751.

Dimensions: 30 1/4 x 25 in. (76.84 x 63.5 cm.)

The subject wears a dark wig and a blue jacket and robe. He is inside a painted oval frame. Inscription below relining: “Col. William Fitzhugh, 1651-1701, son of Henry Fitzhugh (AEtatis 46) born 1614. Cop by John Hesselius 1751”

See: Richard K. Doud, “The Fitzhugh Portraits by John Hesselius,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 75, no. 2 (April 1967): 159-173; Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 256-259; Wayne Craven, Colonial American Portraiture (1986), 183-186.