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Portrait of a Connecticut Clockmaker's Wife
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This painting of a Connecticut clockmaker’s wife was meant to hang to the right of her husband’s portrait, preserving their images and values for subsequent generations. Ralph Earl showed her holding a book, possibly a Bible, as a sign of piety and literacy. The drapery in the background was a compositional device that the artist learned when he studied portraiture in England.
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit linePortrait of a Connecticut Clockmaker's Wife. ca. 1800. Ralph Earl, born Worcester County, MA 1751-died Bolton, CT 1801. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orrin Wickersham June. CC0.
