Age of Revolution
Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl (1788–1838)
American Neoclassicism painter.
Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl (born c. 1785–1788, probably in New York; died 16 September 1838 at The Hermitage near Nashville) was the portraitist who became Andrew Jackson's household painter. He was the son of the Connecticut portrait painter Ralph Earl and Ann Whiteside; the National Gallery of Art's systematic biography treats 1788 as the probable birth year. He learned the trade from his father, then spent 1809–1814 in England — a year with John Trumbull in London, advice from Benjamin West on perspective and anatomy, and portrait commissions while living with maternal kin in Norwich — before a stop in Paris and a return to the United States in December 1815.
In January 1817 he visited Jackson at The Hermitage to gather material for a planned Battle of New Orleans picture, and he stayed. He painted Jackson, Rachel Jackson, and the Donelson circle; in 1819 he married Rachel's niece Jane Caffery, who died in childbirth the next year. After Rachel's death in 1828 he became Jackson's closest companion, lived at The Hermitage, and followed him to the White House in 1829, producing so many presidential likenesses that contemporaries called him the 'Court Painter' and 'the King's painter.' He returned to Tennessee with Jackson after the second term and died at The Hermitage.
In Nashville he was the state's first resident professional portraitist. Rachel Stephens has shown that his 1817 account books record eighty-six commissions and that he founded a short-lived Nashville Museum in 1818 on the model of Charles Willson Peale's Philadelphia museum. His Jackson portraits — military hero, Tennessee gentleman, White House official, and the late Hermitage likenesses — remain the core visual record of Jackson's public face. This file tags him to The Hermitage (Andrew Jackson's home near Nashville), not the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Twin versions at the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the White House are named as such in the work records.
The words the record keeps using: dignifying, loyal, descriptive, plainspoken, ceremonial, intimate.
At a glance
- Lived 1788–1838
- Origin American
- Worked in London, Paris
- Era Age of Revolution
- Movements Neoclassicism
- Mediums Oil on canvas
- Techniques Oil glazing, Chiaroscuro
Works in the archive
- Tennessee Gentleman (Andrew Jackson), 1830 (The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee; oil on canvas, 30 × 20 in. (Tennessee Portrait Project))
An elderly Jackson in civilian dress — dark coat, white stock, and the large beaver hat in which, biographers note, he kept papers on the road. Painted about 1828–1833 and kept at The Hermitage, it is the private,… - Rachel Donelson Jackson, 1830 (The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee (Tennessee Portrait Project))
Rachel Jackson in lace cap and dark silk, painted about 1830–1832 after her death in 1828. Earl had already made a 1826 likeness he called the most correct and authorized for engraving; this later Hermitage picture… - Andrew Jackson astride Sam Patch, 1833 (The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee (reproduced in Rachel Stephens, Selling Andrew Jackson, 2018))
Jackson on his white charger Sam Patch, painted about 1833 and held at The Hermitage. The president sits the horse in dark civilian dress and a tall hat, the lawn and trees of the home place behind him. It is an… - Andrew Jackson, 1836 (Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1954.11.12 (transfer from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia). A public twin of the late Jackson type, not a Hermitage-owned canvas.)
A monumental full-length of Jackson standing beside a column and chair, hat in hand, a public building in the distance. Painted 1836–37 and now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It is recorded here as an… - Andrew Jackson, 1837 (The Hermitage, Nashville, Tennessee (Tennessee Portrait Project photograph))
A late seated likeness of Jackson painted in 1837, the year after he left the White House, and now at The Hermitage. The aged face is set against a dark ground; the body is wrapped in a dark coat and white stock. It is…
What was said
Earl's 1817 Nashville account books record eighty-six portrait commissions and earnings of $4,115, evidence of a sudden professional market for likenesses of Jackson and other War of 1812 figures in the city.
After Rachel Jackson's death Earl became the General's closest companion; when Jackson went to the White House the artist went with him and was known there as 'Court Painter' and 'the King's painter.'
Earl presented Rachel Jackson in fine clothing and jewelry as a respectable lady, to counter political attacks during the 1828 campaign; he treated a 1826 portrait of her as the most correct likeness and authorized its engraving for wider distribution.
What would Ralph make of your idea?
The Artiquity Studio makes a new picture in this hand's manner from a few words or a photograph — grounded in the technique, palette and subjects recorded above, and always credited "after Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl", never passed off as a found work. Open the Studio with Ralph · Keep a life moment the way Ralph would · Pictures made after Ralph