Noah Smith
Ralph Earl
1798
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
163.2 × 107.3 cm (64 1/4 × 42 1/4 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
2158
About the Artist
Ralph Earl · 1751–1801
Ralph Earl (1751–1801) was born on May 11 in Shrewsbury or Leicester, Massachusetts, the eldest of four children to Ralph Earle, a colonel in the Revolutionary army, and Phebe Whittemore Earl. Growing up amid farmers and craftsmen in Worcester County, Earl displayed prodigious talent as a self-taught artist, emulating the works of John Singleton Copley after observing his half-brother Henry Pelham...