James Earle

Background

James Earle was born on May 1, 1761 in that part of Leicester now known as Paxton, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Ralph and Phebe (Whittemore) Earle.

Education

After a period of study in England attained distinction as a portrait-painter.

Career

Earle’s professional life was spent in London, England, and Charleston, South Carolina. In London he exhibited sixteen portraits at the Royal Academy of Art, during a period of nine years. In Charleston he painted many portraits, including those of General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Edward Rutledge, Mrs. Nellie Custis (Mrs. Lawrence Lewis), Lawrence Lewis, and the Right Reverend Robert Smith. Seven years after his marriage, he returned to America for a visit and concluded to make it his permanent home.

He took passage to England to bring his family back, but the vessel first stopped at Charleston, South Carolina, and there he succumbed to an attack of yellow fever and died. It is unfortunate that Earle’s death, in the prime of his life, prevented a wider knowledge of his work in his own country.

Achievements

• A contemporary appreciation ranked him with Copley, Savage, Trumbull, and West, and referred to his unusual ability in giving life to the eye and characteristic expression to every feature.

Connections

About 1789 he married, in London, Caroline Georgiana Pilkington Smyth, widow of Joseph Brewer Palmer Smyth of New Jersey, a Loyalist who returned to England during the Revolution.

Father:

Ralph Earle

Mother:

Phebe ( Whittemore) Earle

Spouse:

Caroline Georgiana Pilkington Smyth

Brother:

Ralph