Charles Bridges

Charles Bridges (1672 – December 1747) was an English painter and missionary active in the British colony of Virginia from 1735 to 1744. He is the first documented painter known to have worked in Virginia.

Life and career

Bridges was christened in the parish of Barton Seagrave in Northamptonshire, and was the son of John Bridges and Elizabeth Trumbull Bridges. His family was of the gentry, and was well-educated; a brother, John Bridges, was a barrister and well-regarded historian of Northamptonshire. He married Alice Flower on 4 August 1687, at Saint Marylebone, near London; the couple had at least three children, a son and two daughters. Just when Bridges became a painter is unknown, though it is assumed that he had some training. Only one portrait is firmly documented dating to before his sojourn in Virginia; it depicts Thomas Baker, a fellow of Saint John's College, University of Cambridge, and was painted sometime after 1717.

Bridges contemplated moving to Georgia in 1733; he is likely to have been a widower by that point, as men of his age seldom considered emigrating to the colonies. family tradition states that Byrd met Bridges in England, in the studio of Sir Godfrey Kneller, but this has not been substantiated. Byrd wrote on his behalf to Alexander Spotswood, describing him as "a man of a good family," who was forced "either by the frowns of fortune, or his own mismanagement," to work as a painter;

It has been suggested that Bridges' decision to return to England may have served as a prompt for William Dering to begin portrait painting, Paintings attributed to Bridges may also be found in the collections of Washington and Lee University, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and the Virginia Historical Society. has since been reassigned to the "school of Sir Godfrey Kneller". As is the case with many colonial painters, Bridges is known to have done non-portrait work as well, having been recorded in 1740 as being paid by Caroline County for "drawing the King's Arms for the use of the County Court", an act for which the county was required to sell 1600 pounds of tobacco. The portrait of James Blair is also notable for containing, in its background, one of the earliest depictions of the Wren Building.