Portrait painter Joseph Blackburn was likely born in Great Britain. His parentage and details of his early life are unknown. The earliest record of Blackburn as a painter is his arrival in Bermuda in 1752. During his two-year stay there he painted at least twenty-five portraits for the Pigott, Jones, Harvey, Tucker, Gilbert, and Butterfield families. A number of these pictures remain on the island in the hands of descendants.

In the best of these, such as Mrs. Thomas Jones, Blackburn exhibited a considerable skill at painting lace and ribbon and other details of dress. This ability has led some scholars to speculate that he was first trained as a drapery painter in a larger English studio.

Blackbur...