(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
53.182.58 verso
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate sketch from Thomas Sully's sketchbook created between 1810 and 1820, offers a rare glimpse into the working process of one of America's foremost portrait painters. Sully (1783–1872), a Philadelphia-based artist influenced by British Romantics like Sir Joshua Reynolds, was renowned for his luminous portraits of prominent figures, including presidents and royalty. During this early phase of his career, he filled sketchbooks with rapid studies of everyday subjects—here, figures including children, men, and women—capturing the vitality of American life amid the young nation's post-Re...
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...