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Three-quarter length portrait of a man seated in a chair with his proper left hand on his thigh…
Dr. James Lynah
Three-quarter length portrait of a man seated in a chair with his proper left hand on his thigh…
Three-quarter length portrait of a man seated in a chair with his proper left hand on his thigh and proper right arm resting on an open book on a table. He is wearing a black coat, knee britches, white shirt with ruffle cuffs, and white stockings. A dark red curtain is draped behind him with a view to a landscape at left.
Dr. James Lynah, Henry Benbridge, c. 1800, oil on canvas, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia.

Dr. James Lynah

Artist (American, 1743 - 1812)
Sitter (Irish, 1737 - 1809)
Datec. 1800
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsCanvas: 49 7/8 × 40 1/4 inches (126.7 × 102.2 cm)
Framed: 63 1/4 × 52 7/8 × 4 3/4 inches (160.7 × 134.3 × 12.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of James Lynah.
Object number1949.16
On View
Not on view
CopyrightThe images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextJames Lynah was born in Dublin, Ireland, where he received his medical degree. While serving as a surgeon in the British Navy, he was shipwrecked near Kingston, Jamaica. From there he came to St. Stephen’s Parish in South Carolina, where his closest neighbor was Francis Marion, who would become known as the “Swamp Fox,” a hero of the American Revolution. Lynah himself served with the American patriots in Colonel Daniel Horry’s regiment at the siege of Savannah by the British. He attended Count Casimir Pulaski and extracted the bullet from which Pulaski died. In 1789, he helped to found the Medical Society of South Carolina, and at the time of his death he was Surgeon General of South Carolina. Artist Henry Benbridge was born and educated in Philadelphia, and moved to Charleston in 1772. A patriotic Revolutionary, Benbridge was imprisoned by the British from May 1780 to 1782 in St. Augustine, Florida. He eventually returned to Charleston to paint, and spent his last years in Philadelphia, no longer an active artist.
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