The Gordon Family

Henry Benbridge was born and raised in Philadelphia, where he trained with itinerant English painter John Wollaston (active 1736-1775). Benbridge honed his craft by making several ambitious copies after Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). He also made family portraits, of which this large portrait of his mother, stepfather, and step- and half-siblings is the finest. The complicated composition, showing the Gordons interlocked through a web of poses, gestures, and glances, was more sophisticated than any other group portrait executed in Philadelphia at the time. Benbridge represents his family as prosperous, numerous, and affectionate. Benbridge returned to Philadelphia in 1770 after studying in Rome for many years. Two years later, the newly married artist moved to South Carolina, where he became a prominent portraitist and his wife Esther “Hetty” Sage painted miniatures. During the American Revolution, he was imprisoned by the British between 1780-82.