Ralph Earl
Born Leicester or Shrewsbury, Mass., May 11, 1751. Died Bolton, Conn., August 16, 1801.

Mary Ann Carpenter (Mrs. Thompson Forster), 17791
Oil on canvas
47 3/4 x 35 3/8 in. (121.3 x 90 cm)
Museum purchase, 1916.2
Inscriptions
Signed and dated, in script, lower left, in black paint: "R. Earl. Pinx 1779"
On the right member of the stretcher, in ink: "This picture is a likeness of Mrs Forster, The Wife of Thompson Forster Esqre of London, and Senior Surgeon of Guy’ s Hospital, in London; and was the only/ Daughter of William Carpenter Esqre of Aldeby in Norfolk; it is a likeness of her when a girl about 14 years old, and her maiden name was Mary Carpenter, and only Sister of William Carpenter Esqre of Toft Monks. . . This picture was renovated by Mr Sands, an Artist in Norwich, in the year 1860, and by the order, and at the expence/ of Philip Samuel Carpenter."

Provenance
Owned 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, 1916.2

References
Christie’ s 1915, 7, lot 30.

"Recent Purchases", Worcester Bulletin 7: 1 (April 1916): 5.

Gage 1916, 6.

L[    ]., 1916, 8, 9, 10.

"Purchases in 1915–1916," Worcester Annual Report 1916, 15.

Worcester 1922, 174.

Lee 1929, 218.

Worcester 1929, cat. no. 332.

Sawitzky 1935a, 5.

Burroughs 1936, 92.

Sherman 1939, 178.

Sawitzky 1945, Introduction, cat. no. 3, plate, n.p.

"Ralph Earl," Worcester News Bulletin 11: 3 (December 1945): n.p.

Rathbone 1949, 23.

Sawitzky and Sawitzky 1960, 15, 19–21, 39.

Lyon 1963, 9.

Goodrich 1967, 7, 18.

Dresser 1971, 478.

Schloss 1972, 10, 11.

Spencer 1972, xv, 8–9.

Neumeyer 1974, 98, 305, fig. 89.

Jareckie 1976, 9, 10, 11.

"Pleasures and Problems of American Art," Apollo 104, no. 175, n.s. (September 1976): 157, 160.

Teitz 1979, 40–41.

Evans 1980, 60, 61.

Kornhauser 1988, I, xvi, 52–53, 54, 74, 271–72.

Kornhauser 1991a, 19, 89, 90, 115, 117, 118.

Kornhauser 1991c, 796, 798, 799.

Exhibitions
The Inaugural Exhibition, Cleveland Museum of Art, June 6-September 20, 1916, cat. no. 132.

Exhibition of American Eighteenth Century Art Owned in and near Worcester, Worcester Art Museum, 1929, cat. no. 332.

Ralph Earl, 1751–1801, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 16–November 21, 1945; and Worcester Art Museum, December 13, 1945–January 13, 1946, cat. no. 3.

The American Earls: Ralph Earl, James Earl, R. E. W. Earl, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, October 14–November 12, 1972, cat. no. 1.

The Early Republic: Consolidation of Revolutionary Goals, Worcester Art Museum, March 3–June 30, 1976, cat. pp. 9, 10, 11.

Benjamin West and His American Students, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., October 16, 1980–January 4, 1981; and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, January 30–April 19, 1981, cat. pp. 60, 61.

American Art from the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, April 27–June 24, 1979, cat. pp. 40–41.

Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., November 1, 1991–January 1, 1992; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Conn., February 2–April 2, 1992; and Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, May 16–July 12, 1992, cat. no. 11.

Notes
1. This painting also has been published as Portrait of Mary Carpenter ("Recent Purchases," Worcester Bulletin 7: 1 [April 1916]: 5) and Mary Carpenter (Sawitzky 1935a, 5).

2. Christie’ s 1915, lot 30. J. Leger identifies himself as the purchaser of the Carpenter portraits from Christie’ s in a letter to Charles Henry Hart, July 23, 1915, Frick Art Reference Library, New York. For the sale to Hart, see J. Leger to Charles Henry Hart, September 23, 1915, Frick Art Reference Library. For the sale to the Worcester Art Museum, see Charles Henry Hart to Worcester Art Museum, bill, December 30, 1915, approved January 7, 1916, object file, Worcester Art Museum.