Only six paintings by an 18th-century Williamsburg artist remain, and now five of them are in Colonial Williamsburg’s collections.
William Dering moved to Williamsburg in 1737, where he opened a dancing academy, according to a press release from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
He was also an avid painter, and Colonial Williamsburg has expanded their collections of his works through a donation. It will be on display at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.
The oil-on-canvas painting was donated by Virginia native Julia Miles Brock, a descendant of the painting’s subject, Joyce Armistead Booth.
“The painting of Joyce Armistead Booth, my five-times great-grandmother, has been a part of my life for all 74 years, but Miss Joyce (as we were taught to call her) is nearly 300 years old,” Julia Miles Brock said in the press release. “My brother, sister and I decided it was time she was in a museum with its attendant care, proper storage and an appreciative audience.”
Colonial Williamsburg is currently undertaking a comprehensive study of Dering and his work. Because of its pristine condition, the portrait of Booth will help the Foundation’s experts better understand Dering, his techniques and the historical context in which he painted.
“Executed in saturated, well-preserved reds, blues and golds, and measuring more than 4 feet in height, this likeness of Joyce Armistead Booth is visually arresting,” said Ronald L. Hurst, the foundation’s Carlisle H. Humelsine chief curator and vice president for collections, conservation and museums. “The portrait commands the viewer’s attention, and in so doing, provides a window into the goals and aspirations of early Virginia’s planter aristocracy.”
