Mrs. Guy Richards of New London, 1793
Oil on canvas
Gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company 2002.1.52

Ralph Earl completed over one hundred portraits of Connecticut sitters, including six members of the family of Thomas Shaw of New London. He depicted Elizabeth Harris Richards (1727–1793), Shaw’s sister-in-law and the wife of a prominent dry goods merchant, the year that she died. Although training in England had taught the American-born Earl to stress elegance and refinement in his portraits, his American patron called instead for an emphasis on the elderly woman’s forceful character.

Richards holds a copy of Philip Doddridge’s Family Expositor: or, A Paraphrase and Version of the New Testament, a popular guide for family worship. Eyeglasses in hand, she appears ready to instruct the viewer, at whom she gazes intently. Behind her, a window provides a glimpse of her husband’s wharf in on Winthrop’s Cove, an inlet of the Thames River.