CHARLES PAXTON BUTLER

James Earl settled in Charleston in 1794 after working in London for about ten years where he was a successful portraitist and picked up the latest and most fashionable London style—a balance of swift execution with individualization. Tragically, he contracted yellow fever only two years later and died quite young. The body of paintings Earl created in Charleston, including this one of silversmith Charles Paxton Butler (1765–1858), provides a sense of his enormous talent in creating portraits that capture the personality of the sitter while also dazzling with a deft handling of paint.