Description
Painting believed to be Mary Isham Randolph (d. 1735). Mary Isham was the daughter of Henry Isham and Catherine Banks Royall of Bermuda Hundred. She married William Randolph I of Turkey Island, Virginia in 1680. This image is a provincial adaptation of a Peter Lely seventeenth-century portrait type. The neckline of the sitters costume plunges fashionably and is fastened with a jeweled button. In the nineteenth century, after the Wilton portrait gallery was dispersed from the house, the Randolph family lost the identity of this sitter. It is believed to represent Mary Isham Randolph, on the basis of the style of her costume; perhaps it is a copy of an earlier portrait. The grandmother of the builder of Wilton, Mary Randolph was revered by her descendants as the hearty mother of seven sons and three daughters, nine of whom she raised to maturity and infused with values that guided them to careers of distinction. In the family gallery, her portrait would have served as evidence of that accomplishment. oil on canvas
