Ralph Earl’s Portrait of Roger Sherman
Connecticut’s Roger Sherman was the only person to sign all four of the founding documents of the United States. Ralph Earl painted this portrait in 1775.
Sherman was born in Massachusetts in 1721 and moved to New Milford, CT, at the age of 22. He ran a store, became a surveyor, then a lawyer. In 1761, he moved to New Haven, his prominence rose, and in 1766 he was elected to the General Assembly’s Council of Assistants. In 1774, Sherman represented Connecticut at the First Continental Congress and, in 1775, at the Second. Known both for his Puritan values and his shrewd political instincts, Sherman became the only person to sign the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and, in 1787, the Constitution.
Ralph Earl painted this portrait soon after he arrived in New Haven from England, depicting Sherman in a simple, homespun suit that suggests an American rejection of European culture. Earl, a Loyalist, fled for England soon after, returning to settle in Bolton, CT once the war ended.
The portrait is in the Yale University Art Gallery.
Credits
Roger Sherman’s portrait is in the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven.