John Hesselius

John Hesselius (1728–1778) was a portraitist who worked mostly in Virginia and Maryland. He was the son of the Swedish-born portraitist Gustavus Hesselius.

John Hesselius was most likely born in Philadelphia, where his father owned a house to satisfy clients. Claims that he was born in Prince George's County, Maryland are unfounded, for his father Gustavus had sold his farm in the county in 1726, two years prior to John's birth. Any records of his birth would have been lost in a fire that occurred in 1740 at Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church in Philadelphia. In 1750 it is documented that Gustavus received two letters from his son, who was writing from the Williamsburg area. John probably set out from Philadelphia in order to escape competition from the better-known artists in the area, such as his father, James Claypoole, John Wollaston and Robert Feke.

His earliest paintings are attributed to 1750, when he worked in the vicinities of Williamsburg and Yorktown. By the following year he had established himself as a colonial "court" painter, and painted many of the prominent families in the Chesapeake Bay area. In 1751, he made six portraits for the Fitzhughs, one of the First Families of Virginia. He eventually painted or copied five generations of the family during the two decades he worked for them. (A 1767 portrait of Sarah Fitzhugh Bland, the mother of Chancellor Theodorick Bland, is the only signed work by Hesselius for which there is a record of the value of the commission: £20 and sixteen shillings.) Also in 1751 completed four portraits for Philadelphia judge Joshua Maddox and his family. Twelve portraits have been identified as Hesselius works for this year alone. Upon Gustavus' death in 1755, he inherited his father's house on High Street (now Market Street, Philadelphia).

...
Wikipedia