(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
53.182.60 verso
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate sketch from Thomas Sully sketchbook, created between 1810 and 1820, captures intimate scenes of women and dogs in and wash on paper (9 x 11½ in.). Sully, a leading American portrait painter of the early 19th century, renowned for his elegant, fluid style influenced by British masters like Sir Joshua Reynolds. Working primarily in Philadelphia, he produced luminous portraits of American elites, but his sketchbooks reveal the preparatory artistry behind those grand canvases—quick studies that honed composition, gesture, and expression. Ink and wash, a technique using diluted ink f...
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...