Portraits of Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson, charcoal on paper by Thomas Sully, sketched shortly after the battle of New Orleans (The Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. Walter O. Briggs, Detroit, Michigan)

Bureau of Printing & Engraving portrait of Andrew Jackson based on Thomas Sully's images

This is a list of portraits of Andrew Jackson, who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. All surviving images of Andrew Jackson were created after the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Born with hair variously described as reddish or sandy, Jackson was 47 years old, middle-aged and with fully "iron-gray" hair, when he came to national renown. ^{[1] [2]}

Historians believe that Jackson sat for about 35 portraits, and that there are a total of about 200 paintings of Jackson done in oils or watercolor, many created posthumously and/or copied from existing images. ^[3] His nephew-in-law Ralph Earl was considered the "court painter" of the Andrew Jackson administration, producing "numerous paintings of Jackson, some of distinction, but many repetitious in nature and mediocre in quality, which were political icons rather than art." ^[4] John James Audubon, who lived in the lower Mississippi River valley in the early 1820s, saw one Earl portrait of Jackson that had been purchased by the city of New Orleans, about which he wrote in his journal, "Great God forgive Me if my judgment is Erroneous, I Never Saw A Worse painted Sign in the streets of Paris." ^[5] On the other side of the coin, Jacksonians held "the firm opinion that Earl's canvasses reflect the true likeness and character of the General better than his more celebrated contemporaries. After all, they reason, Earl had the advantage of many years of intimate daily association with his subject." ^[5]

Jackson also sat for photographers in the 1840s, resulting in four surviving daguerreotypes of him in old age, when he was constantly ill and toothless (physically if not behaviorally). The portrait on the US$20 bill created by the U.S. Treasury department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing in the 1920s is based on Thomas Sully's posthumous paintings of Jackson based on earlier sketches drawn from life, such as the 1845 portrait now housed in the National Gallery of Art. ^[6] Sully depicted Jackson with somewhat wavy hair, but Jackson's hair was usually described as "stiff and wiry" ^[7] or "bristling." ^[2]

Biographer Andrew Burstein divided the portraits of Jackson into three general categories of depiction: gentleman, enigma, and hero, creating a confusion such that "Jackson's elusiveness to the modern mind is well-symbolized" by the variation. ^[8] Another writer commented: "after viewing this extensive Jacksonian gallery, one is prompted to exclaim: 'Will the real Andrew Jackson please stand up!'" ^[3]

Color key:   Pre- and post-presidential portraits     Presidential-era portraits  

Paintings

Image	Date	Age	Artist	Institution	Technique	Notes
	1815	48	Nathan Wheeler	?	Oil on canvas	There are no known images of Andrew Jackson before 1815, [9] this was painted from life in 1815 after the battle of New Orleans [10] [11]
	1817	50	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	National Portrait Gallery
	1817	50	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl			According to historian Charles G. Sellers, "The full dress uniform that Andrew Jackson took to New Orleans in 1814, a magnificent outfit costing over $500, had been bought for him in Philadelphia by Joel Childress," the father-in-law of future 11th president James K. "Young Hickory" Polk [12]
	1819	52	Samuel Lovett Waldo	Metropolitan Museum of Art	Oil on canvas
	1819	52	Samuel Lovett Waldo	Historic New Orleans Collection	Oil on canvas
	1819	52		Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Andover Academy	Oil on canvas	According to biographer Robert V. Remini, Waldo produced one of the "better likenesses" of Jackson [13]
	1819	52	Charles Willson Peale	The Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania of The Grand Lodge F. & A. M. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia	Oil on canvas
	1819	52	Rembrandt Peale	Maryland Historical Society	Oil on canvas	Commissioned by the city of Baltimore. [14] Historian Andrew Burstein notes that father and son Peale painted their portraits of Jackson within a month of each other "yet the two likenesses suggest dramatically different men." [8]
	1819	52	Anna Claypoole Peale	Yale University Art Gallery	Watercolor on ivory	Painted in Washington, D.C. while Jackson was there defending himself in Congress against charges of misconduct in the First Seminole War [15]
	1819	52	John Wesley Jarvis	Metropolitan Museum of Art	Oil on canvas	Commissioned by the city of New York; [16] Remini considered this a "romantic portrait" [13]
	c. 1822	55	Possibly Matthew Harris Jouett [17]		Oil on wood panel
	1824	57	Thomas Sully			Painted from life, "the original 1824 study was privately owned by Mrs. Breckenridge Long in 1940, but its current location is unknown." [18]
	1824	57	Robert Street	Sedalia Public Library, Sedalia, Missouri
	1828	57	Asher B. Durand	New York City Hall	Oil [19]	"After John Vanderlyn," collection of New-York Historical Society, New York [20]
	1828	61	Joseph Wood			Original image lost (?)
	1830	63	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	DAR Museum [21]	Oil on canvas [22]	"The Jockey Club Portrait" [21] Jackson is sitting in a chair ordered by James Monroe from Pierre-Antoine Bellange, in the distance is the U.S. Capitol with the "Bullfinch dome," which is distinct from the present dome. [22]
	1830	63	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	Private collection [21]		"Farmer Jackson" portrait [21]
	1828–1833	61–66	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, Nashville		"Tennessee gentleman" portrait [21]
	1832	65	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	North Carolina Museum of Art
	1833	66	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis
	1833	66	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, Nashville		Andrew Jackson Astride Sam Patch
	1832–35	65–68	William James Hubard
	1835	68	Samuel M. Charles		"Miniature"	Andrew Jackson had lost or all of his original teeth by 1828. [23] Per biographer Robert V. Remini, he was "refusing to wear his dentures" when he sat for this portrait. [24]
	1835	68	David Rent Etter  [ d ]	Second Bank Portrait Gallery, Independence National Park, Philadelphia		Depicts Jackson, seated at the White House, pointing a copy of the Proclamation to the People of South Carolina [25]
	1835	68	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl
	1835	68	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, Nashville
	1836	69	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina
	1836–37	69–70	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl	Smithsonian Museum of American Art		"The National Picture," possession transferred to museum from U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia [21]
	1837	70	Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl
	1840	73	Miner Kilbourne Kellogg
	January 1840	73	Jacques Amans
	1840	73	Edward Dalton Marchant	Union League of Philadelphia (?) [9]
	1840	73	James Tooley Jr.			"After Marchant"
	1840	73	Trevor Thomas Fowler  [ d ]		National Portrait Gallery
	1842	75	John Wood Dodge		Tennessee Historical Museum	Commissioned by Gen. Robert Armstrong
	1846		George Peter Alexander Healy		National Portrait Gallery	Painted from life when Jackson was near death, painted a portrait of Sarah Yorke Jackson during the same sittings; [26] three versions exist; "According to Marquis James's biography of Jackson, a dropsical swelling having spread to Jackson's face, only the eyes, the right one blind, the forehead and the hair were painted from life." [4]

Photographs

Image	Date	Age	Artist	Technique	Notes
	1840?				J. E. Moore of New Orleans was "reported in March of 1842 as practicing the daguerrean art at the rooms of Madame Berniaud at the corner of Baronne and Canal streets. Specimens of the daguerreotype on view at his rooms included a likeness of General Andrew Jackson." [27]
	1844–45	77–78	Possibly by Edward Anthony, copy made by Mathew Brady [28]	Half-plate gold-tone daguerreotype
	1844–45	77–78	Possibly by Edward Anthony, copy made by Mathew Brady	Half-plate gold-tone daguerreotype
	April 15, 1845	78	Dan Adams, enlarged by Charles Truscott [29]	Daguerreotype	This version hand-tinted; per Remini this image captures Jackson "bloated, grumpy, formally attired, and propped up against a pillow"; [17] possibly apocryphal story about Jackson's comment on the image: "Humph! Looks like a monkey!" [26]

Posthumous

Image	Date	Artist	Institution	Technique	Notes
	1845	Thomas Sully	National Gallery of Art
	1845	Thomas Sully	Corcoran Gallery of Art
	1857	Thomas Sully	United States Senate Collection	Oil on canvas mounted on board	Based on a study from life done in 1824 [18]

Notable engravings and lithographs

Image	Date	Artist	Notes
	?	James Barton Longacre	"After Sully"
	?	James Barton Longacre	"After J. Wood"
	?	James Barton Longacre	"After Earl, 1826"
	September 28, 1829	James Barton Longacre	"Drawn from life"
	1845	Currier & Ives	Lithograph, posthumous
		U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Miscellaneous

Image	Date	Artist	Notes
	?	Ralph E. W. Earl (?)	After she died, Jackson carried around this miniature of Rachel
	1828	William James Hubard	Cut-paper silhouette
	1856	Charles F. Fisher	Jackson in a cloak and a top hat "instead of the cocked hat or chapeau-bras" usually depicted as his headgear at the Battle of New Orleans, said to be "the precise costum [sic] which he wore at the battle of New Orleans;" a similar hat appears in Earl's Tennessee Gentleman portrait and according to biographer Robert V. Remini, "the large beaver hat" was where he kept "notes and memoranda" as he traveled [30]

References

1. Cheathem (2013), p. 68. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFCheathem2013 (help)
2. Goff (1969), p. 304.
3. Goff (1969), p. 297.
4. Kelly, James C. (1987). "Catalogue – Portrait Painting in Tennessee – Exhibit". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 46 (4): 208–276 [208, 222]. ISSN   0040-3261. JSTOR   42629707.
5. Goff (1969), p. 298.
6. "U.S. Senate: [Andrew] Jackson". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
7. Goff (1969), p. 302.
8. Burstein, Andrew (2003). The Passions of Andrew Jackson. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 138–139. ISBN   978-0-3754-1428-2. LCCN   2002016258. OCLC   49385944.
9. "Who's Who?". AMERICAN HERITAGE. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
10. "Putting a Face on the Man (1815–1821) | The Historic New Orleans Collection". www.hnoc.org. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
11. "Andrew Jackson". America's Presidents: National Portrait Gallery (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-12-30.
12. Sellers (1957), p. 74.
13. Remini (1977), illustration insert
14. "Andrew Jackson by Rembrandt Peale (1819)". Baltimore City Life Collection, lent by Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. Maryland Center for History and Culture.
15. "Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) | Yale University Art Gallery". artgallery.yale.edu. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
16. Jarvis, John Wesley (1819), General Andrew Jackson , retrieved 2024-12-30
17. Remini, Robert Vincent (1984). Andrew Jackson and the course of American democracy, 1833-1845. Internet Archive. New York, N.Y. : Harper & Row. ISBN   978-0-06-015279-6.
18. "Andrew Jackson" (PDF). govinfo.gov.
19. "Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), (painting)". siris-artinventories.si.edu. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
20. Stephens (2018), p. 188.
21. Stephens (2018), illustration insert.
22. "Collections Object Detail". Daughters of the American Revolution. Retrieved 2024-12-31.
23. Gardner, Frances Tomlinson (March 1944). "The Gentleman from Tennessee". Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics. 88: 405–411.
24. Remini, Robert Vincent (1984). Andrew Jackson and the course of American democracy, 1833-1845. Internet Archive. New York, N.Y. : Harper & Row. ISBN   978-0-06-015279-6.
25. Gobetz, Wally (2008-06-01), Philadelphia - Old City: Second Bank Portrait Gallery - Andrew Jackson , retrieved 2024-12-31
26. "The Hermitage, home of Old Hickory, by Stanley F. Horn". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
27. Smith, Margaret Denton (1979). "Checklist of Photographers Working in New Orleans, 1840–1865". Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 20 (4): 393–430. ISSN   0024-6816. JSTOR   4231938.
28. "Daguerreotypes: Andrew Jackson". WHHA (en-US). Retrieved 2024-12-30.
29. "Portrait of Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)". Tennesseans Through the Lens: Portrait Photography in Tennessee. 2023-11-21.
30. Remini, Robert V. (1981). Andrew Jackson and the course of American freedom, 1822–1832. Internet Archive. New York : Harper & Row. Second side of illustration insert following p. 256. ISBN   978-0-06-014844-7.

Sources

• "Senate Art" (PDF). govinfo.gov.
• Cheathem, Mark R. (2014). Andrew Jackson, Southerner. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN   978-0-8071-5099-3. LCCN   2012049695. OCLC   858995561. Project MUSE   book 26506.
• Goff, Reda C. (1969). "A Physical Profile of Andrew Jackson". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 28 (3): 297–309. ISSN   0040-3261.
• Remini, Robert V. (1977). Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN   978-0-8018-5912-0. LCCN   77003766. OCLC   1145801830.
• Sellers, Charles Grier Jr. (1957). James K. Polk: Jacksonian, 1795–1843. Princeton Legacy Library No. 2226. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. doi:10.1515/9781400877881. ISBN   9781400877881. JSTOR   j.ctt183pq15. LCCN   57005457. OCLC   979595704.
• Stephens, Rachel (2018). Selling Andrew Jackson: Ralph E. W. Earl and the Politics of Portraiture. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN   978-1-6111-7867-8. LCCN   2017041622. OCLC   1023818256. Project MUSE   book 59054.