1 / 1

download image
This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Learn more about our image policies.

Ralph Earl

Daniel Boardman, 1789

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 207.4 x 140.4 cm (81 5/8 x 55 1/4 in.)

framed: 228 x 160 x 10.2 cm (89 3/4 x 63 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. W. Murray Crane

Accession Number

1948.8.1

Artists / Makers

Ralph Earl (painter) American, 1751 - 1801

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower left: R. Earl Pinxt 1789-

Provenance

The sitter's grandson, Rev. William S. Boardman [b. 1838], New York.[1] The sitter's great-grandniece, Josephine Porter Boardman Crane [Mrs. Winthrop Murray Crane, 1873-1972], New York and Woods Hole, Massachusetts, by 1935;[2] gift 1948 to NGA.

[1] The portrait presumably was inherited first by the sitter's son Frederic William Henry Boardman [1804-1882], New York City and New Hamburg, New York, and then by his son William S. Boardman. On these relationships see Charlotte Goldthwaite, Boardman Genealogy 1525-1895, (Hartford, 1895), 331-332, 408.

[2] Mrs. Crane, the great-granddaughter of Elijah Boardman, the sitter's brother, owned the portrait by 1935, when she lent it to the exhibition at Yale University. Carl Boardman Cobb recalled that Mrs. Crane, his great-aunt, said she bought the painting from another member of the family (telephone interview, 8 January 1990). For Mrs. Crane's dates see Goldthwaite 1895, 545, and the National Cyclopedia of American Biography 57 (Clifton, New Jersey, 1977), 720.

Associated Names

Boardman, William S., Reverend
Crane, Winthrop Murray, Mrs.

Exhibition History

1935: Connecticut Portraits by Ralph Earl, 1751-1801, Gallery of Fine Arts, Yale University, New Haven, 1935, no. 15.

1940: Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 172.

1945: Ralph Earl, 1751-1801, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Worcester Art Museum, 1945-1946, no. 14.

1946: American Painting, The Tate Gallery, London, 1946, no. 76.

1991: Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, 1991-1992, 152, no. 28.

Bibliography

1895: Goldthwaite, Charlotte. Boardman Genealogy 1525-1895. Hartford, 1895: 331.

1907: Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College. 1907: 4:182.

1934: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. "Ralph Earl: An Eighteenth Century Connecticut Portrait Painter." Art in America 22, no. 3 (June 1934): 83, 88, repro. facing 81.

1935: Connecticut Portraits by Ralph Earl, 1751-1801. Exh. cat. Gallery of Fine Arts, Yale University, New Haven, 1935: no. 15.

1939: Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. "The Painting of Ralph Earl With a List of His Portraits." Art in America 27, no. 4 (October 1939): 177, no. 33.

1945: Ralph Earl, 1751-1801. Exh. cat. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Worcester Art Museum, 1945-1946: no. 14.

1946: American Painting. Exh. cat. The Tate Gallery, London, 1946: no. 76.

1946: Goodrich, Lloyd. "Ralph Earl." Magazine of Art 39, no. 1 (January 1946): 5, repro. 2 (detail).

1960: Sawitzky, William, and Susan Sawitzky. "Two Letters from Ralph Earl, with Notes on his English Period." Worcester Art Museum Annual 8 (1960): 27, repro. 26 (detail).

1967: Goodrich, Laurence B. Ralph Earl, Recorder of an Era. Albany, 1967: 9-10, 58, fig. 24.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 52, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 150, repro.

1980: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: no. 11, color repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 73, repro. 74.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 394, no. 560, color repro.

1988: Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin. Ralph Earl: Artist-Entrepreneur. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1988: 129-130, 258.

1988: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 70, no. 12, color repro.

1991: Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth. New Haven, London, and Hartford, 1991-1992: 152, no. 28.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 169, repro.

1995: Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 96-98, color repro. 97.