Rachel Stephens - Selling Andrew Jackson: Ralph E. W. Earl and the Politics of Portraiture

SELLING ANDREW JACKSON

SELLING ANDREW JACKSON

Ralph E. W. Earl and the Politics of Portraiture

RACHEL STEPHENS

The University of South Carolina Press

2018 University of South Carolina

Published by the University of South Carolina Press Columbia, South Carolina 29208

www.sc.edu/uscpress

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/

ISBN 978-1-61117-866-1 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-61117-867-8 (ebook)

Front cover illustration: Andrew Jackson, 1836, oil on canvas, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina, gift of an anonymous donor

For my parents, Michael and Kathleen Stephens

He is the greatest man I ever saw.

Ralph E. W. Earl to Ann Earl, September 18, 1821

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

The research for this book has been funded by a number of organizations, and I could not have completed it without this support. This financial assistance allowed me to spend research time at a number of archives. The Graduate School and the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa provided major funding. In addition, I received assistance in the form of the Tennessee Historical Society Wills Fellowship, Nicholls State Universitys Research Council Grant, a visiting scholarship from the American Antiquarian Society, and the University of Alabamas Research Grant Council award. My employment at Nicholls State University and then at the University of Alabama gave me time in the summers to write, and my spouses employment at Trans States Airlines afforded me financial stability and deeply discounted air travel. I am grateful for all of this assistance.

Two Nashvillians, Marsha Mullin, curator at the Hermitage, and Jim Hoobler, curator at the Tennessee State Museum, in Nashville, have been ardent supporters of this project from the beginning. Both allowed me to pick their brains, shared with me paintings and archival materials, and offered behind-the-scenes tours. They each also generously read and fact-checked the entire manuscript. This project is deeply indebted to their keen eyes, deep knowledge and expertise, and career-long devotion to Jackson and to Tennessee culture, respectively. This project began at the University of Iowa, and I am grateful to Joni Kinsey, who feverishly and tediously read and line-edited the project and offered her expertise and opinion on every thought and word through multiple drafts. The book owes a great deal to her skill, time, and effort. Her guidance helped me become a confident writer. Barbara Mooney at the University of Iowa was a support and ally of this project at every stage. Guidance came from her in a range of forms, including concept and execution. She has also helped me immensely in successfully navigating my academic career. Many friends and colleagues read, discussed, and offered feedback on various aspects of the project, especially including Julia Sienkewicz, Barbaranne Liakos, and Amanda Quackenbush Guidotti. George Thompson, publisher-in-residence at the University of Alabama, was so generous with his time and expert guidance. His help guided me through the publication process. Too many library, archive, and museum professionals have assisted me to name, but these especially include staff from the Library of Congress Manuscript Room, the Catalog of American Portraits, the American Antiquarian Society, the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the Frick Art Reference Library, and the Library of Virginia. My family, especially my siblings, and my parents, Mike and Kathy Stephens, particularly have never wavered in their support of my work. I became an art history graduate student, rather than a law student, because my mom encouraged me to follow my heart, and I am enormously grateful to my parents for their endless generosity, love, and support. Finally, my rock, Jerry Splichal, supports me and my work in every way imaginable and on a daily, even hourly basis, and for him, I am profoundly grateful.

INTRODUCTION

In a telling 1829 letter sent by Ralph E. W. Earl to his dear friend President Andrew Jackson, Earl pledged his loyalty, saying, I will assure you my dear friend my heart is with you, and the only pleasure I have in this life is identified with that of yours. In this correspondence, as in most of the correspondence between the two men, after discussing the issue at hand, Earl launched into political matters and pledged his devotion in closing, saying, No Administration for its time has ever given more general satisfaction than that of yours, and may God grant you with health to go through with this arduous task of reform, is the prayers of yours sincerely. Written shortly after Jacksons move to Washington, these statements appeared in a letter in which Earl apologized for not yet having joined his close companion, a recent widower, at the White House. Jackson desperately wanted Earl to relocate his studio from Nashville, where he had been working for the previous thirteen years, to the capital city during his administration. The correspondence well expresses the sincere devotion Earl, like many Jackson men in the day, felt toward their Old Hero. Over the course of Jacksons political ascendency, he gained many supporters who championed his reform efforts in the United States. Dozens of them worked in tangible ways around the country to support Jackson, and during election periods committees were even mobilized in defense of Jacksons past actions. Closer to home, Jacksons inner circle (which included Earl) defended him staunchly. The significant difference between all of Jacksons other supporters and Earl was that Earl was the only Jackson man who utilized visual culture in shaping and promoting Jacksons image. Others applied the written and spoken word to great effect, but Earl created a visual expression for those words. Earl was arguably the first person in the United States to mobilize artwork in such an extensive way in support of a political candidate, though this practice is commonplace today. Thus the story and the art of Ralph E. W. Earl not only are worth acknowledgment but also create a unique study of the intimate blending of politics and art in American history.