Portrait of Alexander Spotswood (1676-1740)

Date1736

Attributed to Charles Bridges (1670 - 1747)

OriginAmerica, Virginia, Spotsylvania County

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 48 1/8" x 38 5/8" and Framed: 55 1/8" x 45 1/2" x 2"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1940-359,A&B

DescriptionA three-quarter length portrait of a standing man turned a quarter towards the viewer's right. His proper right hand rests on his hip, his proper left hand is extended in front of him and, in that hand, he grasps a partially scrolled parchment or piece of paper. The subject wears a full, powdered wig that falls onto his shoulders and is parted in the middle. He wears a dark red, collarless coat with gold-colored buttons and a waistcoat extensively decorated with gold embroidery, the pocket flap being completely covered with it. A sword hangs at his far side, the hilt visible below his far hand. In the right background, a fortified castle is shown.

The appearance and disposition of the original frame are unknown. The 3 1/2-inch gilded frame now assigned to the portrait is a period replacement that was bought for it from dealer Julius Lowy, Inc., 8 April 1942. At its sight edge, the Lowy frame has a raking knull radiating from the centers of the members, with floral decorations at the corners. A cyma reversa molding leads to a back frame decorated with low relief half circles, or stylized floral carving.
Label TextAlexander Spotswood was born in Tangier, Morocco, his parents being Catharine Mercer (ca. 1638-1709) and her second husband, Dr. Robert Spottiswoode, physician to the Earl of Middleton who then served as Governor General there.

Following his graduation from the Westminster School in London, Spotswood received a lieutenant's commission in the Earl of Bath's (10th) regiment. After ten years' service (and by then a captain), he was appointed deputy quartermaster general by the Duke of Marlborough; subsequently, he served in all the Duke's major battles and sieges. In 1704, at the Battle of Blenheim, the decisive engagement of the War of Spanish Succession, a bridge demolished by French artillery fire fell on him, wounding him. He was brevetted lieutenant colonel and, as the war wound down, was further rewarded with the posts of lieutenant-governor, commander-in-chief, and vice admiral of the colony of Virginia. (Full titular governors remained in England at the time.)

Spotswood accomplished much during his 1710-1722 administration in Virginia. In Williamsburg, its capital, he functioned as architect and chief contractor for the completion of the Governor's Palace and the College of William and Mary (which was rebuilt following a 1705 fire) and for the construction of Bruton Parish Church and the Powder Magazine. More widely, Spotswood was known for regulating the tobacco trade, treating with the Iroquois, encouraging the immigration and settlement of German-speaking populations, crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains and exploring land to the west of the Piedmont, and establishing what was possibly the first successful iron processing operation in the colonies (the Tubal Works).

Spotswood was recalled from office in 1722 and, in 1724 in London, he married Anne Butler Brayne. However, he returned to Virginia by 1729, settling with his family at "Germanna," his estate in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. He served as Deputy Postmaster General from 1730 to 1739. In the latter year, he was promoted to major general. In 1740, he died in Annapolis, Maryland, whence he had expected to sail to Cartagena to fight in Britain's war with Spain.

Colonial Williamsburg's portrait has long been considered the work of English immigrant Charles Bridges based on style as well as documentary evidence. Bridges was recommended to Spotswood by William Byrd II, one of the wealthiest planters in the colony of Virginia. In a letter dated December 30, 1735, that was personally delivered to Spotswood by the artist, Byrd wrote: "The person who has the honour to wait upon you with this letter is a man of Good Family, but either by the frowns of Fortune or his own Mismanagement, is obliged to seek his Bread a little of the latest in a strange land. His name is Bridges, and his Profession is Painting, and if you have any Employment for him in that way he will be proud of obeying your commands. He has drawn my children, & several others in the neighbourhoud; and tho' he have not the Masterly Hand of a Lilly [Lely], or a Kneller, yet had he lived so long ago as when places were given to the most Deserving, he might have pretended to be the Sergeant-Painter of Virginia."
InscribedNone found. The scrolled document in the subject's hand may have been inscribed once but, if so, over the years, damage or overcleaning has removed any trace of it. In a similar portrait (see "Related Works"), the scroll reveals one or more buildings in elevation, in two horizontal rows, but it is not clear whether this was the intent of the artist of acc. no. 1940-359.
ProvenanceCW's acc. no. 1940-359 was among a group of eight portraits (all, or at least seven, of them now considered attributable to Charles Bridges) that were first offered to CWF in 1930 by Spotswood descendant Mrs. Isaac Newton Jones (nee Louise Beverly Turner)(1866-1943) of Richmond and Williamsburg, Virginia.

The eight portraits depicted (1) Alexander Spotswood, i.e., CW acc. no. 1940-359, (2) Augustine Moore, i.e., CW acc. no. 1976-376, (3) Mrs. Augustine Moore and Child, i.e., CW acc. no. 1976-377, (4) Dorothea Spotswood Dandridge, i.e., CW acc. no. 1940-360, (5) Thomas Moore, now in a private collection, (6) Lucy and Bernard Moore, now in a private collection, (7) "Mr. Ainsworth," said to be Augustine Moore's "merchant," now unlocated, and (8) "Mrs. Clarke," said to be employed by Augustine Moore as a governess, now unlocated.

Most or all of the foregoing eight portraits appear to have descended through the Moore family of Chelsea plantation, King William County, Virginia, Alexander Spotswood's oldest daughter, Anna Catherina (d. 1802), having married Bernard Moore (ca. 1720-1775) of Chelsea. Campbell ("Bibliography"), p. 13, notes that Alexander Spotswood's portrait (evidently 1940-359) was hanging at Chelsea in 1868.

An undated nineteenth-century handbill issued by Leiper Moore Robinson, Sr., of Bowling Green, Virginia, lists for sale all of the above portraits except no. 6 (the double portrait of Lucy and Bernard Moore). The handbill states that Robinson's seven portraits were "from life, and for years were preserved at Chelsea." It specifically says the portrait of Alexander Spotswood hung at at that house "until a few years ago."

Per a manuscript bill of sale dated 19 October 1898, Robinson then transferred his seven portraits to his niece, Louise B. Jones, who, in 1940, sold two of them, 1940-359 and 1940-360, to CWF. [CWF acc. nos. 1976-376 and 1976-377 were purchased in 1976 from Mrs. Jones's granddaughter, Mrs. Helen Ballou.]

How, when, and from whom Jones obtained the double portrait of Lucy and Bernard Moore (no. 6) is unknown. Lucy Moore, one of the two subjects, may have taken the painting with her when she married John Robinson, thereby initiating a temporarily deviant line of descent.

Note: An old CWF work sheet for 1940-359 states that Louise B. Jones bought 1940-359 from Mrs. Bland Spotswood Smith --- clearly an error in view of the explicit bill of sale between Leiper M. Robinson and Jones. [Note, however, that James L. Cogar's 1940 notes a DAR catalogue of 1897 that listed a portrait of Alexander Spotswood owned by Mrs. Bland Spotswood Smith of Richmond.]

N. B.: Frances L. N. Waller to CWF, 22 February 1957, alludes to 1940-359's having been "formerly owned by Nannie Turner Montague," but this seems to be a misunderstanding stemming from the facts that Louise Jones and Nannie Montague were sisters who, at one time, lived together.