(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
53.182.45 verso
Tags
Art Historical Context
This lively sketchbook page by Thomas Sully, a leading American portraitist active in the early 19th century, captures quick studies of men, women, horses in ink and wash on paper. Dating from 1810–20, it measures a modest 9 x 11½ inches and hails from Sully's Philadelphia studio, where he honed his craft amid the young nation's cultural flowering. Sully, influenced by British masters like Sir Joshua Reynolds, blended neoclassical poise with emerging Romantic vitality, and these sketches reveal his fluid hand at work—wash adding soft tonal depth to define forms and movement. As a preparatory ...
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...