Celebrating The American Wing: American Portraits | Explore & Learn

Esther Boardman, 1789
Ralph Earl (1751–1801)
Oil on canvas; 42 1/2 x 32 in. (108 x 81.3 cm)
Gift of Edith and Henry Noss, 1991 (1991.338)

Elijah Boardman, 1789
Ralph Earl (1751–1801)
Oil on canvas; 83 x 51 in. (210.8 x 129.5 cm)
Bequest of Susan W. Tyler, 1979 (1979.395)

Seated on a hillside, Earl's favorite format for young women, Elijah's sister Esther Boardman (1762–1851), is backed by a view of New Milford, Connecticut, the town in which the Boardmans were prominent citizens. A bright and engaging woman, she wears a green levite, an informal gown fashionable in the 1780s, which here harmonizes perfectly with her surroundings. She has stylishly powdered hair, a pale complexion, and may be wearing false ringlets and eyebrows fashioned from mouseskin.

Back

Photograph Credits