Did you know that one of the supposed reasons the University of Georgia ended up in Athens instead of nearby Watkinsville is because the latter had a tavern? The UGA trustees were worried that students would spend their time gambling, drinking, and dancing, so they picked what was then farmland. We all know how that turned out! Two portraits in the collection of the Georgia Museum of Art have a connection to that tavern. Painted around 1827, they show Mr. Robert Ransome Billups and Mrs. Elizabeth Ware Fullwood Billups. Their son, Edward Swepson Billups married Mary Richardson, whose father owned the Eagle Tavern, and the portraits hung there for many years. Replicas are still present, but the paintings now hang in the museum’s galleries, where they serve as important examples of early-19th-century American portraiture. Paired paintings of spouses were popular at the time among those few families who could afford to have their pictures made. Mr. Billups appears in front of a hunting scene in the background. Mrs. Billups is pictured inside, in front of a drapery, wearing a delicate lace collar. Together, they were important early residents of Clarke County.
Billups Portraits
