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Lot Essay
In 1790, Earl, aged thirty-nine, was at the height of his career…
-Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic (1991), p. 8.
Resplendent in their finery, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Tucker are rendered by Ralph Earl (1751-1801) in his distinctly American style, capturing the privilege and refinement of his sitters yet also conveying a certain restraint and lack of pretension. Their elegant silk clothes, hers with meticulously delineated lace embellishments, the fully-upholstered chairs and the billowing drapery all belie the wealth of the sitters and their ability to afford such expensive textiles. Other details demonstrate the sitters’ piety, industry and education. In the background of Mrs. Tucker, a church steeple with weathervane is clearly visible and is most likely a direct reference to Danbury’s First Congregational Church, which the couple joined in 1787. A tambour embroidery frame in her lap and a hook poised in her hand, Mrs. Tucker is portrayed in the act of sewing, an activity that demonstrated both her productivity and lack of idleness. Mr. Tucker’s portrait includes a number of bound books, three indicated as a waste book, journal and ledger, along with an inkwell, letter and, on a chain at his waist, a key fob and seal bearing his initials, all of which proclaim his mercantile profession and literacy.
At the same time, the sitters are not idealized. They are looking directly at the viewer, their features unremarkable and she with noticeable moles on her neck. At the time these paintings were executed, Earl had spent eight years in England, trained under Benjamin West, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was well aware of the Grand Manner style largely established by Sir Joshua Reynolds. However, he eschewed the “dramatic poses, classical costumes, [and] allegorical guises characteristic of the most fashionable English portraiture” and particularly for his rural, conservative Connecticut patrons, relied upon “linearity, strong coloring, and precise execution” (Kornhauser, pp. 25, 42). The portraits are signed and dated 1790, and as referenced above, illustrate the work of Earl at the height of his career, two years after his release from debtors’ prison in New York and soon after embarking on his itinerant career in Connecticut and Long Island.
The portraits depict Thomas Tucker (1744-1820) and his second wife Anna Dibble (1759-1837). Born in New York City, Tucker was a successful merchant, vestryman of Trinity Church, and according to his grandson, served as Assistant Commissary-General during the Revolution. He and his family left the city at the beginning of the Revolutionary War and resided in Westchester County, New York, where he received a bullet wound from British light-horsemen during the 1776 Battle of White Plains. In 1780, the Tucker family moved further afield to Danbury, Connecticut, where he built a gambrel-roofed frame house on Main Street. Relocated to Mountainville Avenue, the house stands today and is run by the Danbury Museum. His first wife, Hannah Bartow, died in 1780 and two years later, Tucker married Anna Dibble in New York. Tucker was instrumental in the logistics of the British removal from New York, and composed, delivered, and signed an address to George Washington on behalf of the “exiles” who were forced to leave the city during the British occupation. Soon thereafter, the couple moved back to Danbury where in 1787 they joined the First Congregational Church. A devotee of the teachings of the evangelical preacher George Whitefield, Tucker was clerk and later deacon of his church in Danbury, ran a school for both boys and girls in the 1790s, and was active in various civic pursuits. He continued his mercantile business and in 1791, a year after Earl painted his portrait, he along with Comfort Hoyt advertised as managers of a new cotton manufactury. A detailed inventory of Tucker’s estate survives and describes a well-furnished household, including numerous items of clothing, a picture of General Washington, a large library of predominantly ecclesiastical books, and very likely the seal portrayed in Thomas' portrait, a "Silver Watch Seal." However, it appears that these portraits are not included (the only possible reference to these portraits is a listing for “4 Gilt Framed Pictures,” but the value of $1.00 or .25 each suggests that these are lesser works) (Rev. William Berrian, Historical Sketch of the Trinity Church (New York, 1847), p. 162; Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Essex County, Mass. (Boston, 1865), pp. 129-130; “Memoir of Mr. Thomas Tucker,” Methodist Magazine, vol. 5 (New York, 1822), pp. 11-17, 54-58; Susan Benedict Hill, comp., History of Danbury, Conn. (New York, 1896), pp. 146, 183, 291, 343; The Farmer's Journal, Danbury, Connecticut, July 25, 1791, p. 4; “An Inventory of the Real and Personal Estate of Thomas Tucker late of Danbury Deceased,” Danbury, Connecticut, April 1820, in Connecticut, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999, available at ancestry.com).
-Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic (1991), p. 8.
Resplendent in their finery, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Tucker are rendered by Ralph Earl (1751-1801) in his distinctly American style, capturing the privilege and refinement of his sitters yet also conveying a certain restraint and lack of pretension. Their elegant silk clothes, hers with meticulously delineated lace embellishments, the fully-upholstered chairs and the billowing drapery all belie the wealth of the sitters and their ability to afford such expensive textiles. Other details demonstrate the sitters’ piety, industry and education. In the background of Mrs. Tucker, a church steeple with weathervane is clearly visible and is most likely a direct reference to Danbury’s First Congregational Church, which the couple joined in 1787. A tambour embroidery frame in her lap and a hook poised in her hand, Mrs. Tucker is portrayed in the act of sewing, an activity that demonstrated both her productivity and lack of idleness. Mr. Tucker’s portrait includes a number of bound books, three indicated as a waste book, journal and ledger, along with an inkwell, letter and, on a chain at his waist, a key fob and seal bearing his initials, all of which proclaim his mercantile profession and literacy.
At the same time, the sitters are not idealized. They are looking directly at the viewer, their features unremarkable and she with noticeable moles on her neck. At the time these paintings were executed, Earl had spent eight years in England, trained under Benjamin West, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was well aware of the Grand Manner style largely established by Sir Joshua Reynolds. However, he eschewed the “dramatic poses, classical costumes, [and] allegorical guises characteristic of the most fashionable English portraiture” and particularly for his rural, conservative Connecticut patrons, relied upon “linearity, strong coloring, and precise execution” (Kornhauser, pp. 25, 42). The portraits are signed and dated 1790, and as referenced above, illustrate the work of Earl at the height of his career, two years after his release from debtors’ prison in New York and soon after embarking on his itinerant career in Connecticut and Long Island.
The portraits depict Thomas Tucker (1744-1820) and his second wife Anna Dibble (1759-1837). Born in New York City, Tucker was a successful merchant, vestryman of Trinity Church, and according to his grandson, served as Assistant Commissary-General during the Revolution. He and his family left the city at the beginning of the Revolutionary War and resided in Westchester County, New York, where he received a bullet wound from British light-horsemen during the 1776 Battle of White Plains. In 1780, the Tucker family moved further afield to Danbury, Connecticut, where he built a gambrel-roofed frame house on Main Street. Relocated to Mountainville Avenue, the house stands today and is run by the Danbury Museum. His first wife, Hannah Bartow, died in 1780 and two years later, Tucker married Anna Dibble in New York. Tucker was instrumental in the logistics of the British removal from New York, and composed, delivered, and signed an address to George Washington on behalf of the “exiles” who were forced to leave the city during the British occupation. Soon thereafter, the couple moved back to Danbury where in 1787 they joined the First Congregational Church. A devotee of the teachings of the evangelical preacher George Whitefield, Tucker was clerk and later deacon of his church in Danbury, ran a school for both boys and girls in the 1790s, and was active in various civic pursuits. He continued his mercantile business and in 1791, a year after Earl painted his portrait, he along with Comfort Hoyt advertised as managers of a new cotton manufactury. A detailed inventory of Tucker’s estate survives and describes a well-furnished household, including numerous items of clothing, a picture of General Washington, a large library of predominantly ecclesiastical books, and very likely the seal portrayed in Thomas' portrait, a "Silver Watch Seal." However, it appears that these portraits are not included (the only possible reference to these portraits is a listing for “4 Gilt Framed Pictures,” but the value of $1.00 or .25 each suggests that these are lesser works) (Rev. William Berrian, Historical Sketch of the Trinity Church (New York, 1847), p. 162; Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Essex County, Mass. (Boston, 1865), pp. 129-130; “Memoir of Mr. Thomas Tucker,” Methodist Magazine, vol. 5 (New York, 1822), pp. 11-17, 54-58; Susan Benedict Hill, comp., History of Danbury, Conn. (New York, 1896), pp. 146, 183, 291, 343; The Farmer's Journal, Danbury, Connecticut, July 25, 1791, p. 4; “An Inventory of the Real and Personal Estate of Thomas Tucker late of Danbury Deceased,” Danbury, Connecticut, April 1820, in Connecticut, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999, available at ancestry.com).