Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl

Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl (born 1785–1788; died September 16, 1838), was an American painter known as the "court painter" to President Andrew Jackson. He also painted the portrait of Rachel Jackson.

Biography Earl was the son of portrait painter Ralph Earl and his second wife Ann Whiteside, and thus a member of the prominent Earle family. He was born c. 1785–1788, probably in New York City, and likely received his early training in portraiture from his father, whose naive style is reflected in the younger Earl's earliest works. He traveled to London in 1809, where he studied for a year with John Trumbull and was advised by Benjamin West to learn perspective, anatomy, and three-dimensional illusion. He remained in England until 1814, living with his maternal grandfather and uncle in Norwich and executing portrait commissions. He then traveled to Paris before returning to the United States in December 1815 to create grand-scale history paintings on the European model. on May 19, 1819. She died in childbirth in 1820, as did their son. Earl returned to Tennessee with Jackson after his second term of office and died at The Hermitage on September 16, 1838. His explicit goal was to paint portraits of Andrew Jackson and other regional military heroes like John Coffee and William Carroll, capitalizing on their fame after the War of 1812. In 1818, inspired by the example of Charles Willson Peale’s Philadelphia Museum, Earl founded the Nashville Museum. This institution, the first of its kind in the region, aimed to educate the public, improve educational opportunities, expand knowledge, and enhance the state’s reputation. Earl envisioned it as a place to “illustrate the works of nature, stimulate inventive genius, inform the imitative, and gratify curiosity.” The museum housed a diverse collection, including natural history specimens, mineral samples, Native American artifacts (some from Earl's own archaeological explorations in Tennessee), and his paintings. Earl actively sought items, undertaking the first archaeological excavations in Tennessee at sites like the Ward Mounds and Bledsoe's Lick, unearthing pottery, tools, and skeletal remains. He also co-founded the Tennessee Antiquarian Society in 1820, serving as its librarian and hosting its meetings at his museum. The society was dedicated to preserving state history and studying the “antiquities of the Western country,” eventually evolving into the Tennessee Historical Society. While intended to be republican and open to the public, the museum saw more attendance from the elite who could afford the admission fee instituted in 1822. Earl resigned from the museum directorship in January 1825, shifting his focus increasingly towards portraiture and his relationship with Jackson. Though the museum itself was short-lived, Earl's initiative marked him as a key cultural broker and entrepreneur in the early American West, contributing significantly to Nashville's burgeoning intellectual and cultural identity and setting precedents for museum development.

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