Ralph Earl

American, 1751 - 1801

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American painter (1751–1801)

Explore Selected Works

Ralph Earl, Thomas Earle, 1800, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1947.17.42

Thomas Earle

Ralph Earl · 1800 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1947.17.42

A pale-skinned man wearing a white waistcoat, navy-blue coat with tails, knee-length britches, and white stockings stands in front of a deep landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The man nearly fills the right half of the composition. He stands with one ankle crossed in front of the other and his body angled to our left. He looks out at us with brown eyes under wide, dark gray brows. He has a round face with a wide jaw, a straight nose, and his thin, pale pink lips are closed. His gray hair is brushed back from his forehead and sweeps down over his ears. A white cravat is tied in a bow around his neck under a cream-white waistcoat, which is trimmed with pale peach and has two rows of peach buttons down the front. The jacket has gold-colored buttons, and translucent, ruffled cuffs flare out at the wrists. A fob hangs from his parchment-white pants, which are fastened with an oval-shaped, diamond-encrusted buckle on the outside of the knee facing us. His stockings are pearl white, and his black shoes have square silver buckles. He holds a black hat in his left hand, to our right, and his other hand rests on the end of a waist-high wooden walking stick, which angles out to our left where the brass end is braced against the ground. A brown form behind him and to the right could be a column, edge of a building, or a tree trunk. A thick trunk angles out on the far side of his head, and a smaller tree grows up the left side of the composition. Grassy fields reach back to a winding river and a town with a church spire, manor house, and other buildings tucked among hills. Lavender-gray clouds press in to either side of a sunset sky lit pale pink at the center. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, "R. Earl Pinxt 1789.”
Ralph Earl, Daniel Boardman, 1789, oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, 1948.8.1

Daniel Boardman

Ralph Earl · 1789 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1948.8.1

Ralph Earl, Martha Tennent Rogers (Mrs. David Rogers) and Her Son, probably Samuel Henry Rogers, 1788, oil on canvas, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1965.15.9

Martha Tennent Rogers (Mrs. David Rogers) and Her Son, probably Samuel Henry Rogers

Ralph Earl · 1788 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1965.15.9

Ralph Earl, Dr. David Rogers, 1788, oil on canvas, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1965.15.8

Dr. David Rogers

Ralph Earl · 1788 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1965.15.8

Bibliography

1972

  • The American Earls. Ralph Earl, James Earl, R. E. W. Earl. Exh. cat. William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, 1972.

1980

  • Evans, Dorinda. Benjamin West and His American Students. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Washington, 1980: 60-66.

1988

  • Kornhauser 1988.

1991

  • Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin. Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic Exh. cat. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1991.

1995

  • Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 90-91.