Studies: Major Thomas Biddle and Thomas Wilcocks Sully
1820
Medium
pen and brown ink over graphite on gray laid paper
Dimensions
sheet: 22.5 × 29.3 cm (8 7/8 × 11 9/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Adolph Caspar Miller Fund
Accession Number
1978.78.1
Art Historical Context
Thomas Sully's *Studies: Major Thomas Biddle and Thomas Wilcocksly* (1820) offers a fascinating glimpse into the preparatory work of one of America's foremost portraitists. Sully, a Philadelphia-based artist renowned for his elegant, luminous portraits influenced by British masters like Sir Joshua Reynolds, captured these two—Major Thomas Biddle a notable military officer and banker, and Thomas Wilcocks Sully, the artist's own son—in quick, expressive sketches. Created amid the early American Republic's burgeoning cultural scene, these studies likely served as studies for larger oil portraits,...
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...