James Earl
Born Leicester, Mass., May 1, 1761.
Died Charleston, S.C., August 18, 1796

Major General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 1795–96
Oil on canvas
35 1/2 x 29 13/16 in. (90.2 x 75.7 cm)
Museum purchase, 1921.86

Provenance
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney; to his brother General Thomas Pinckney. By descent to Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel; to her son Frank Ravenel; to his wife, Mrs. Frank C. Ravenel, Charleston, S.C. Purchased by the Worcester Art Museum from Frank W. Bayley, Copley Gallery, Boston, April 21, 1921.2

References
"Accessions," Worcester Bulletin 13, no. 1 (April 1922), 25.

"Acquisitions by Purchase, 1921–1922," Worcester Annual Report 1922, 17, [26].

Worcester 1922, 173.

Leiding 1931, opp. 168.

Washington Bicentennial 1932, 41–42

"Loans from the Museum Collections," Worcester Annual Report 1932, 27.

Sherman 1935b, 150, [151], 153.

Burroughs 1936, 96.

Signers Exhibition 1937, 14, 15–16.

"Loans from the Museum Collections," Worcester Annual Report 1938, 19.

American Portraits 1939, II, 321.

Dallas Museum 1960, n.p.

McCormack 1970, 787.

Spencer 1972, 40.

Cooke 1972, 149–50.

Ferris 1976, 204–6.

Jareckie 1976, 18–19.

Teitz 1979, 54–55.

Marcus I, pt. 2, 1985, 726.

Stewart 1987, 54.

Exhibitions
Portraits by Painters Who Worked in the American Colonies (organized by the Copley Society), Boston Art Club, Boston, March 4–27, 1922.

George Washington Bicentennial Historical Loan Exhibition of Portraits of George Washington and His Associates. Also a Collection of Washingtonia (organized by the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission), Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. March 5–November 24, 1932, cat. no. 90.

Loan Exhibition of Portraits of the Signers and Deputies to the Convention of 1787 and Signers of the Declaration of Independence . . . (organized by the United States Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission), Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., November 27, 1937–February 1, 1938, cat. no. 5.

Famous Families in American Art, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, October 8–November 20, 1960, cat. no. 18.

The Early Republic: Consolidation of Revolutionary Goals, Worcester Art Museum, March 3–June 30, 1976, cat. p. 19.

American Art from the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, April 27–June 24, 1979, cat. p. 55.

Notes
1. I am grateful to Robert G. Stewart for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this catalogue entry. This painting also has been published as: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Washington Bicentennial 1932, 41–42); Colonel Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Sherman 1935b, [151], 153); General Pinckney (Burroughs 1936, 96); Gen. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (American Portraits 1939, II, 321); General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Cooke 1972, 149); Major General C. C. Pinckney (Leiding 1931, opp. 168); Portrait of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Dallas Museum 1960, n. p.); Portrait of General Charles C. Pinckney (Worcester Bulletin 13, no. 1 (April 1922), 25); and Portrait of General Pinckney (Worcester Annual Report 1932, 27).

The date is based on James Earl’s presence in Charleston, 1794–96, and Pinckney’s elevation to major general–the rank at which he is depicted–in the South Carolina militia in 1795. J. G. de R. Hamilton, "Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth," in DAB, s.v.

2. The provenance for this portrait is recorded in an enclosure to a letter from F. W. Bayley to Raymond H. Wyer, April 21, 1921. For the transfer to the Worcester Art Museum, see Copley Gallery invoice, dated April 21, 1921, approved and paid May 6, 1921. The painting was offered to the museum by F. W. Bayley, Copley Gallery, in a letter to T[homas] Hovey Gage, August 17, 1920, Gage Family Papers, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass., box 4, folder 3; and by H. L. Ehrich, Ehrich Galleries, New York, in a letter to [Thomas Hovey] Gage, March 16, 1921. Documents in object file, Worcester Art Museum, except as noted.

According to Colonel Alston Deas, Caroline Gilman rescued "the Rutledge-Pinckney group of portraits in Greenville, immediately subsequent to the Stoneman raid during the first week of May, 1865." Col. Alston Deas to [Louisa Dresser], August 31, 1961.