Mrs. Noah Smith and Her Children

Mrs. Noah Smith and Her Children

Mrs. Noah Smith and Her Children

Artist:
Ralph Earl (American, Worcester County, Massachusetts 1751–1801 Bolton, Connecticut)
Date:
1798
Culture:
American
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
64 x 85 3/4 in. (162.6 x 217.8 cm)
Classification:
Paintings
Credit Line:
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1964
Accession Number:
64.309.1

In 1798, Ralph Earl left his home in Connecticut, traveling throughout New England in search of portrait commissions. While in Vermont, he painted the most ambitious work of his career, a large group portrait of Chloe Burrall Smith (1757–1810) with her five children. Earl, who had trained in England, adopted a simplified style to suit the tastes of his rural patrons. Wearing a fashionable, yet modest silk gown, Mrs. Smith embraces her youngest daughter in a maternal gesture. The four older children are posed before a landscape, each holding an attribute. Of particular note is son Daniel (second to the left), who holds a "Map of the World"—an emblem of the family’s education and global ambitions.

Provenance

Mr. and Mrs. Noah Smith, Milton, Vermont, until 1812; their daughter, Mrs. Eliza Smith Huntington, Vergennes, Vermont; her daughter, Ann Eliza Huntington, Vergennes, Vermont, until 1876; her cousin, Mrs. Ruth Keller Goss, died 1940; her daughter, Mrs. J. Warren (Ruth Goss) Barnes, Troy, New York and Mrs. Barnes's son, Wentworth H. Barnes, Salisbury, Connecticut, until Dec. 1957; with Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, Dec. 1957–Jan. 1958; Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Cambridge, Maryland, Jan. 1958–1964

Copyright Image
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