SULLY, THOMAS Date
Docent Handbook - Artist Fact Sheet Artist Name: SULLY, THOMAS Date: 1783-1872 Nationality: American, born English Title/Date: The Student (Rosalie Kemble Sully), 1848 Size: 30 ½ x 26 ¼ inches Medium: Oil on canvas Gallery Location: 4th Floor, Gallery 2 Salient Characteristics of this Work: - Portrait of the artist’s daughter, Rosalie Kemble Sully (1818-1847) - Rosalie was also an artist, a painter of miniatures, having been tutored by her father - Began on November 5th, 1848 and completed on December 18th, according to Sully’s record book - Three portraits of Rosalie as a student exist, another version completed in 1937, before her death at age 29 - Seated, resting figure with crossed hands on portfolio, holding pencil; lampshade casts shadow over face; elongated neck is characteristic of the romantic style Information Narrative: - 1783, born to actors in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England - 1792, emigrated to the U.S. with his family and settled in Charleston, South Carolina - 1799, moved to Virginia to live with his older brother Lawrence, a painter of miniatures - 1804, Lawrence died and Sully took up the care of his brother’s widow, Sarah, and three young children - 1806, married Sarah and moved to New York because marriage to a brother’s widow was illegal in Virginia - 1807, moved with Sarah to Philadelphia - 1809, became an American citizen and then departed for England to study painting for about nine months with Benjamin West - 1812, elected to honorary membership to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art; served on its board from
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