General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

James Earl likely learned the fundamentals of painting in this country before going to London around 1784. He exhibited at the Royal Academy before he was enrolled as a student in 1789. Between 1794-6 he was in Charleston where he died. According to his obituary he possessed “an uncommon facility in hitting the likeness . . . and a peculiarity in his execution of drapery.” Born in Charleston in 1746, Pinckney received his education at Oxford and the Middle Temple. A Revolutionary war general, Pinckney had a distinguished military and political career. Earl’s portrait captures Pinckney in all his military regalia and incorporates the fort on Sullivan’s Island, the scene of America’s first victory over the British in 1776.