Thursday, April 8, 2021

18C American Woman - Elizabeth Buckner Stith (Mrs Drury Stith) 1695-1700 - 1756)

Elizabeth Buckner Stith (Mrs Drury Stith) 1695-1700 - 1756) by William Dering 1745-49.

Elizabeth Buckner Stith was the daughter of William Buckner and Katherine Ballard Buckner. She married Colonel Drury Stith (d. 1740). They lived in Prince George County, Virginia. The portrait descended in the family of her son, Griffin Stith of Brunswick County. The portrait was likely painted in Williamsburg.

The subject wears a blue-gray wrap dress with red lining and a brown-green drape. She is turned towards her left and appears inside a painted oval frame. The portrait is inscribed “W. Dering” on the left and “AEstatis Suae 50” on the right.

See: Colonial Williamsburg eMuseum; Carolyn J. Weekley, Painters and Paintings in the Early American South (2013), 191-195; Graham Hood, Charles Bridges and William Dering: Two Virginia Painters, 1735-1750 (1975), 101-103.

Janine Yorimoto Boldt, researcher. Colonial Virginia Portraits. Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, Digital Project, 2019