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Thomas Sully

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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THOMAS SULLY (1783-1872), American artist, was born at Horncastle, England, on the 8th of June 1783. His parents, who were actors, took him to America when he was nine years old, settling at Charleston, South Carolina, and he was first instructed in art by a French miniature painter. Afterwards he was a pupil of Gilbert Stuart in Boston, and in 1809 he went to London and entered the studio of Benjamin West. He returned in 1810, and made Philadelphia his home, but in 1837 again visited London, where he painted a full length portrait of Queen Victoria for the St George's Society of Philadelphia. Sully was one of the best of the early American painters. He died in Philadelphia on the 5th of November 1872. Among his portraits are those of Commodore Decatur (City Hall, New York); the actor George Frederick Cooke, as Richard III. (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadephia); Lafayette (Independence Hall); Thomas Jefferson (U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York); Charles and Frances Anne Kemble, and Reverdy Johnson. His son Alfred Sully (1821-1879) an officer in the United States army, was a brigade-commander in the Army of the Potomac in 1862-63, and after 1863 commanded the department of Dakota and conducted several campaigns against hostile Indians in the north-west. In 1865 he was breveted brigadier-general in the regular army and majorgeneral of volunteers.