(From Sketchbook)

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 studies and tonal modeling—this 9 x 11½-inch sheet captures dynamic figures including angels, men, and women amid a moonlit scene. The loose, expressive lines and subtle washes highlight Sully's mastery of light and shadow, techniques he honed to prepare for his grand oil paintings. Such sketches reveal the artist's creative process, bridging everyday observation with mythological reverie. Housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing and acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1953, this work underscores the vitality of early 19th-century American art. It reflects a young nation's growing artistic ambition, where European influences merged with a distinctly American spirit of innovation and wonder.

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...