Collection of Commonwealth of Virginia Governors’ Portraits (State Art Collection)
2nd quarter of the 19th century–2014
82 paintings. Oil on canvas, oil on wood, pastel on paper.
From 21″ H x 18″ W framed to 69″ H x 51″ W framed.
Governors were initially elected by the General Assembly, with gubernatorial vacancies being filled by members of the Council of State. Five of these acting governors have portraits in the collection: William Fleming, Wyndham Robertson, John Mercer Patton, John Rutherfoord, and John Munford Gregory. The Constitution of 1851 established the popular election of governors and also set a four-year term limit. While governors cannot serve consecutively, they can be re-elected, and a portrait is commissioned at the end of each term. Currently, Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr. (1966–1970, 1974–1978) is represented by two portraits in the Governors’ Gallery. The collection lacks portraits of governors Beverley Randolph (1788–1797), Robert Brooke (1794–1796), and James Wood (1796–1799), and acting governors Hardin Burnley (1799), John Pendleton (1799), and Peyton Randolph (1811–1812).
The first set of governors’ portraits came into the state collection in 1873, when the Library of Virginia (then the Virginia State Library) acquired portraits of James Barbour, Robert Brooke [1], John Floyd, John Buchanan Floyd, William Branch Giles, Joseph Johnson, John Rutherfoord, George William Smith, William Smith, John Tyler Sr., and John Tyler Jr. Over the next few decades, portraits came to the Library as gifts from governors and their family members or were purchased … Read the rest
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