(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
53.182.48 verso
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate sketch from Thomas Sully's sketch, dated around 1810–20, offers a rare glimpse into the creative process of one of America's foremost portrait painters. Sully, a British-born artist who thrived in Philadelphia, was renowned for his elegant, luminous portraits influenced by English Romantics like Sir Joshua Reynolds. Active during a formative era in American art—post-Revolution, pre-Civil War—this page captures everyday subjects: children, women, and, reflecting the domestic and equestrian life of the early republic. Rendered in ink and wash on paper (9 x 11½ inches), the work sh...
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...