Selling Andrew Jackson: Ralph E. W. Earl’s Portrait Project

As the first full-time presidential artist, Ralph E. W. Earl was charged with fashioning a respectable public image of Andrew Jackson, a president unlike his predecessors who was the subject of endless verbal and visual attack. Over the course of a twenty-year friendship, Jackson relied on Earl to fulfill dozens of portrait commissions and to create a “presidential look” for him. When Jackson became the subject of negative political cartoons, Earl produced presidential-looking portrait prints of Jackson in various guises, including heroic general, respectable citizen, and elite southern planter. Living in the White House during Jackson’s two terms, Earl painted Jackson on a daily basis as significant historical events transpired. He also took meals and traveled with the presidential family. Although Rachel Jackson died just before Jackson assumed office, she had similarly become the subject of attack, and Earl similarly worked to cultivate a positive public image of her through portraiture and print. Offering an overview of the significant portraits Earl created for the Jacksons, this presentation introduces the work of a little-known artist addressing the impact of his work in its own day and afterwards. Earl crafted an image of Jackson that fell in line with a style of portraiture that Gilbert Stuart had created for George Washington. Drawing from that precedent, and pushing it in a meaningful way, Earl’s work for Jackson solidified a standard presidential style and established a role on which future presidential artists would rely.