Colonel Barnard Elliott (1740-1778) and Mrs. Barnard Elliott (Mary Elizabeth Bellinger) (1751-1774) were painted by Jeremiah Theus (1716-1774), a Swiss artist who came to Charleston in 1735 and dominated portraiture there for forty years. Elliott was a member of the colonial elite, appointed to the Governor's Council in 1771. His wife Mary was his first cousin; they were married in 1766 when she was only 15, at which time these portraits were probably painted. Their home, Bellevue, on the Ashepoo River, was an extensive rice plantation. Shortly after Mary died in childbirth in 1774, Elliott resigned his position on the Royal Governor's Council to become a member of the first Provincial Council of South Carolina. He was an artillery Lieutenant Colonel during the Revolution.
Courtesy of the Gibbes Museum of Art/Carolina Art Association.
