(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
53.182.59 recto
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate sketch from Thomas Sully's sketch, created between 1810 and 1820, offers a glimpse into the imaginative world of one of America's leading portraitists. Sully, a British-born artist who settled in Philadelphia, was renowned for his elegant portraits of prominent figures like Thomas Jefferson and Queen Victoria. Working in the Romantic tradition influenced by British masters such as Reynolds and Gainsborough he often explored fanciful subjects in his preparatory drawings, blending realism with ethereal fantasy. Rendered in ink and wash on paper—a fluid medium ideal for quick studi...
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...