: Henry Benbridge was the leading portrait painter in Charleston, South Carolina in the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Benbridge began his education at the Academy of Philadelphia in 1751 but left school to pursue painting in 1758. Stylistic evidence and family tradition suggest that Benbridge received his earliest training from British portraitist John Wollaston (active in America 1749-1767), whom he likely met in 1758 when his stepfather Thomas Gordon commissioned a portrait from the artist. Some of Benbridge’s earliest paintings from these years also suggest he attempted to emulate the works of Benjamin West (1738-1820) and Gustavus Hesselius (1682-1755). In 1760, Benbridge resolved to study in Europe and traveled to Italy where he enrolled in Pompeo Batoni’s Academy in Rome. Under Batoni he mastered glazing, a technique in which artists build up layers of paint with translucent colors and thereby create three-dimensional modeling and a highly finished quality. During his Italian sojourn, he also developed an awareness of the prevailing neoclassical portrait conventions in pose, composition, and the use of classical architecture, drapery, and romantic landscapes as background elements. In 1769 Benbridge left Italy for London, where he spent his final year abroad working and socializing among Benjamin West’s circle of American painters and patrons; and in 1770 he returned to Philadelphia. Within two years of his return, Benbridge married Letitia (Hetty) Sage (d. 1776), a portrait miniaturist who had studied with Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827); welcomed the birth of a son, Henry (Harry) Benbridge, Jr. (b.1772); and moved to Charleston, South Carolina, an ideal location for someone with his background as it was a cosmopolitan city without any other highly skilled, European-trained artists. The years of the American Revolution were likely challenging ones for Benbridge. In 1780, when Charleston fell to the British, he was incarcerated and deported to St. Augustine, Florida, with his fellow patriots. When he was finally released in 1782 he removed to Philadelphia, where he stayed until returning to Charleston in January, 1784. It was in this period that Benbridge received the portrait commission from Bushrod Washington. During his Charleston years (1772-c. 1801), Benbridge painted miniatures, full and half-length portraits, and conversation pieces, assimilating and adapting European portrait conventions to suit the preferences of his American patrons. At the close of his career, Benbridge moved to be closer to his son Harry and his family, and thus likely resided in Norfolk (1801-1810), Baltimore, and Philadelphia. He was buried in Christ Church, Philadelphia, in 1812.