48

(Worcester County, Massachusetts, 19th century)

Portrait of General Jonathan Davis with Manuscript Letters [Folk Art - Military - Militia]

General Jonathan Davis Jr. (1761–1838), Oxford, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Oil on canvas. Descended directly in the family, this portrait appears to be a late-19th century copy after a a similar portrait of General Jonathan Davis attributed to Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl (1784-1838); a pair of portraits of Davis and his wife, Sarah Hammond Davis sold at Christie's, January 18, 2008.

Accompanying this lot are four letter from family members regarding the portraits, including two letters written in 1875 by Betsey Gilbert Davis (1794-1876), daughter-in-law of General Jonathan Davis, to her son George L. Davis (1816-1891). In the first letter, Betsey refers to the present work as one of the family's "old portraits." She further notes that another of these early portraits depicted General Davis's first wife on one side and his second wife on the reverse, and indicates that these early portraits were executed by the same artist who, in the winter of 1816, painted six additional portraits for the Davis family. The second letter records that the items depicted in the painting, including pistols, sash, epaulettes, and sword, were likely sold in Worcester to one of the sons of Captain Stephen Barton.

General Jonathan Davis (1761-1838) was a prominent Massachusetts civic and military leader. He was commissioned Brigadier General in the Massachusetts militia on October 29, 1802, and later advanced to Major General. Beyond his military service, Davis held significant civic authority, serving as Chief Justice of the Court of Sessions for Worcester County from 1812 to 1814 a Presidential Elector in 1828. He was deeply engaged in educational and economic development as a trustee of Nichols Academy (now Nichols College) in Dudley, Massachusetts, and as founder and president of the Oxford Bank from 1823 to 1833.

Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl (1784-1838) was the son of the celebrated American painter Ralph Earl (1751-1801) and Anne Whiteside of Norwich, England. Although his birth date is frequently cited as 1788, he was in fact born in 1784 in London, while his father was studying with Benjamin West. He received his earliest artistic training in Northampton, Massachusetts, studying under his father before embarking on an extended period of travel and study in Europe. In 1809, Earl returned to London, where he worked under the guidance of John Trumbull and Benjamin West, absorbing the conventions of academic portraiture. Earl's career took a decisive turn in 1817, when he traveled to Nashville to paint General Andrew Jackson, then celebrated as the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. He would go on to execute numerous portraits of Jackson, both before and during his presidency, establishing himself as one of the most important visual chroniclers of Jacksonian America. Earl returned to Tennessee in the final year of his life and died there in 1838.


Literature:

Jerome R. MacBeth, "Portraits by Ralph E. W. Earl," The Magazine Antiques (September 1971).

Rachel Stephens, Selling Andrew Jackson: Ralph E. W. Earl and the Politics of Portraiture (2018).

Elizabeth Kornhauser, Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic (1991).
Canvas: 42 x 35 in. (106.7 x 88.9 cm.), Frame: 46 1/2 x 29 1/2 in. (118.1 x 74.9 cm.)

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