William Carpenter

Artist Ralph Earl (American, 1751–1801)

Date1779

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 120.7 x 88.9 cm (47 1/2 x 35 in.)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Terms

Object number1916.1

DescriptionWilliam Carpenter is a full-length portrait of a boy seated at a desk. He is turned three-quarters left, and his gaze is directed at the viewer. Carpenter’s blond hair is cut in bangs across his forehead and hangs in loose curls at his shoulders. His eyes are blue. He wears a solid red waistcoat, coat, and pants that extend just below his knee. Each of these garments is trimmed with gold-colored buttons decorated with a circle at the center and a radial, flowerlike or sunburstlike pattern. The pant cuffs are trimmed with an open oval buckle. A white lace-edged ruffle and collar are visible at the boy’s neck, and he wears white ruffled cuffs and white stockings. His black leather shoes are decorated with large, gold-hued rectangular buckles. William Carpenter’s haircut and clothing are typical of an English boy of his time, fashionable yet slightly provincial in their color and uniformity.1 His right foot rests squarely on the floor, and his left heel is slightly raised, helping to convey the sense that he has just shifted to look at the viewer. Carpenter sits on a linear, joined stool with a black leather seat, and his coat drapes over the back edge; this seat is placed on a three-quarter angle matching the boy’s pose. His left hand rests on his thigh, and his right hand holds open an unidentifiable book on a narrow folding table. The leaf of the table is folded shut, and a brass hinge is exposed at the right-front corner. Earl’s drawing is inaccurate in that the front corner of the table ought to be higher or the back corner lower to define a flat, rectangular surface. Resting on the table is the boy’s black hat, cocked on three sides and decorated with gold braid at the back and a gold tassel at the opposite corner. Both the book and the hat are faintly reflected in the surface of the tabletop.

The portrait is set in an interior that is simply defined by olive tones on the wall and browns on the floor. A single light source flows from the left side of the painting, casting shadows on the right side of the boy’s face and body and on the floor to the right and behind him. This light, which seems to define a wall, leads the eye forward to the boy at left. A shadow appears to indicate an adjoining, receding wall to his right. Alternatively, the left side could define a box of light coming from a window or door. However, the floor lines, which run nearly parallel but not continuously, do not support either interpretation of the space. The edge of the floor to the left of the figure is higher than the one to his right. One suspects that Earl intended to define a projecting corner behind the boy’s forearm but that he failed to adjust the floor line to recede toward the left side of the painting.
Label TextRalph Earl was born in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, and was raised in a part of Leicester that later became Paxton. In 1774 he opened a studio in New Haven, Connecticut. Earl declined to serve in the rebellion and was banished from Connecticut. He succeeded in leaving America in 1778 in the company of Captain John Money, Quartermaster General to Burgoyne, who had been permitted to return to England under the surrender terms at Saratoga in 1777. On his arrival in London, Earl made the acquaintance of Benjamin West. Earl then settled in Norfolk near Captain Money's home where the Museum's portraits of William Carpenter and Mary Ann Carpenter were painted in 1779. During the ensuing years, Earl sought to make a place for himself in the English portrait school, but after the close of the American Revolution, he realized that his native land offered him greater opportunity to practice his art. He returned to America in 1785 to take up portraiture in New York and in New England. During the remaining years of his life, Ralph Earl painted many of the nation's Revolutionary figures. William Carpenter (1767-1823) was twelve when he sat for this portrait, a full-length, seated study. The boy has a quiet and thoughtful presence; he pauses from reading a book. The paint has been smoothly applied to the broad areas of the picture while the details have been deftly handled, as in the almost transparent lace and in the brass buttons of sunburst design.ProvenanceOwned by Philip Samuel Carpenter by 1860. Sold at Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, June 25, 1915; to J. Leger, 13 Duke Street, St. James’s S.W.; to Charles Henry Hart, fall 1915; to the Worcester Art Museum, bill, December 30, 1915, and purchased January 7, 1916.

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