Bearded Cleric (from Sketchbook)
1810–20
Medium
Ink, wash, on paper
Dimensions
9 x 11 1/2 in. (22.9 x 29.2 cm)
Classification
Drawing
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1953
Accession Number
53.182.31 recto
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Sully's *Bearded Cleric ( Sketchbook)*, created between 1810 and 1820, offers a glimpse into the working process of one of America's foremost portrait painters. Sully (1783–1872), who emigrated from England to Philadelphia as a child, mastered the grand, elegant style of British portraiture influenced by masters like Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough This intimate ink and wash drawing on paper—measuring just 9 x11½ inches—captures a religious figure with fluid, expressive lines and subtle tonal washes, techniques that allowed Sully to quickly model form and convey character in pre...
About the Artist
Thomas Sully · 1783–1872
Thomas Sully, born on June 19, 1783, in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England, to actor parents Matthew Sully and Sarah Chester, emigrated with his family to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1792. Raised in a theatrical environment, young Thomas debuted as a tumbler at age 11 before discovering his artistic talent. He studied miniature painting with his brother Lawrence Sully, brother-in-law Jean Belzon...