JEAN JANE LAWRENCE

Charles Bridges, 1740

Oil on Canvas

36" x 32"​

This is an original portrait of our ancestor Jean Jane Lawrence painted by the renowned colonial portraitist Charles Bridges in 1740. Jean was the wife of John Lawrence and mother of Robert Lawrence. The portrait was one of a pair, along with her husband John, painted for their wedding, however the companion portrait disappeared from the collection of Caleb Lawrence after his death in the early 20th century.

Bridges (1672–1747) was the first documented painter to live and work in Virginia. Born to a gentry family in Northamptonshire, England, he settled in London, where he trained as a painter and begun a career as a portraitist. After his wife’s death, he moved to Williamsburg with his children in 1735, armed with letters of introduction to James Blair and lieutenant governor William Gooch.

Bridges' style can be identified by a variety of mannerisms of technique and color. He used broad brushstrokes in the delineation of faces, hair, and fabrics. Features, especially eyes, were drawn carefully and precisely. Colors are usually muted. The composition of many portraits is similar, with the heads and figures turned slightly to one side and the subjects looking directly out at the viewer.

More than two dozen portraits of Virginians are attributable to Bridges, including members of the Blair, Bolling, Carter, Custis, Grymes, Lee, Ludwell, Moore, Page, and Randolph families. He returned to England about 1744 and died in Northamptonshire in December 1747.