Page:McClure's Magazine v9 n3 to v10 no2.djvu/73

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LIFE PORTRAITS OF ANDREW JACKSON.
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ANDREW JACKSON IN 1830. AGE 63. PAINTED BY R. E. W. EARL.



JACKSON IN 1828. AGE 61. EARL.

From the original portrait painted by Ralph E. W. Earl, in the United States National Museum, Washington, D. C. Canvas, 30 by 36 inches. Ralph E. W. Earl was the son of Ralph Earl, who was distinguished as among the best of the early American artists and painted the portrait of Mrs. Alexander Hamilton reproduced in McClure's Magazine for April. The son went to London in 1809, and during his stay there had the advantage of intercourse with West and Trumbull. At the end of a year he went to Norwich, his mother's native place, where he painted for four years. In the autumn of 1814 he visited Paris. Toward the close of 1815 he returned to the United States, and later visited "the Western country," to obtain the portrait of General Jackson for a picture of the Battle of New Orleans which he had in contemplation. He then took up his residence in Nashville, and in 1818 married Miss Caffery, a niece of General Jackson's wife. She died within a twelvemonth, at the age of eighteen. Thus was cemented the friendship that made Earl, upon the death of Mrs. Jackson, a member of the household at the Hermitage and later at the White House. He died suddenly, Sept. 16, 1837, and is buried in the garden at the Hermitage.—The portrait of 1828 is owned by Colonel Andrew Jackson, Cincinnati, Ohio. Canvas, 25 by 30 inches.