Lot 223: Ralph Earl Andrew Jackson Portrait Miniature w/ 14K Brooch & Lock of Hair

Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl (Tennessee/Massachusetts, 1788-1838) miniature portrait depicting a youthful, red-haired Andrew Jackson in military uniform. After John Welsley Jarvis's c. 1819 portrait in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Signed "R.E.W.E.," center right. The present portrait is encased in a 14k yellow gold mourning brooch with a lock of (presumably) Jackson's red hair braided into a wire mesh housed under glass and affixed to the backing. Miniature: 1 1/4" H x 1" W. Brooch: 1 7/8" H x 1 3/8" W. Note: This miniature must have been created between c. 1819 and the artist's death in 1838. Although Jackson's youthful red hair suggests an early date, the original Jarvis portrait already shows Jackson with gray hair. Earl may have intentionally adapted the portrait to show a younger Jackson. According to the MET, the Jarvis portrait commemorates Jackson's "triumphal visit to New York in 1819, during which he was celebrated as the hero of the War of 1812 for his decisive victory over the British at New Orleans." A c. 1825-30 miniature copy of the Jarvis portrait, attributed to Aaron Houghton Corwine and also with red instead of gray hair, is object number SSSA2966 in the National Portrait Gallery's Catalog of American Portraits. Biographical note (adapted from James C. Kelly, Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture): Ralph E. W. Earl was the son of Connecticut painter Ralph Earl (1751-1801). The younger Earl studied under his father in Northhampton, Massachusetts, before traveling to London in 1809 to study with Benjamin West and John Trumbull. In 1817, Earl arrived in Nashville to paint General Andrew Jackson, the hero of the battle of New Orleans. Later that year, in Natchez, he met and married Jane Caffrey, Rachel Jackson's niece. She died the next year, but Earl moved into the Hermitage and would from then on remain in Jackson's circle, accompanying the newly elected president to Washington. During the next eight years, Earl created numerous paintings of Jackson. Politicians, especially Democrats, knew it "did not hurt to order a portrait of General Jackson from Earl." He painted many of Jackson's friends and a few of his foes. Earl returned to the Hermitage with Jackson in 1837 and died there in September 1838.

PROVENANCE: The estate of Gertrude S. Caldwell, Nashville, Tennessee.

CONDITION: Overall very good condition. A few minor specks of foxing, primarily outside of the figure.