Self-Portrait of the Artist Painting His Wife (Sarah Annis Sully) Artist: Thomas Sully (American, born England, 1783–1872)

ca. 1810

American Paintings and Sculpture

Not on view


Great sadness haunts this striking double portrait. Here, Thomas Sully is at once painter, husband, and grieving father. In 1810 Sully’s infant son died in Philadelphia while the artist was in London alone studying with the esteemed American expatriate painter Benjamin West. Sully immediately returned home. The artist invokes the power of art to bring the grieving Sarah magically back from the depths of her sorrow, creating her image on canvas. But that image seems on the verge of evaporating, as if it too cannot sustain the terrible blow that has befallen the young couple.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

26 3/4 × 21 7/8 in. (67.9 × 55.6 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1937.15

Geography

Made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Culture

American

Period

19th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Bibliography
  • Lance Mayer and Gay Myers, American Painters on Technique: The Colonial Period to 1860 (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011), 98, fig. 12
  • Helen A. Cooper et al., Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008), 220–21, no. 120, ill
  • Whitney N. Morgan, "Recently Acquired," Parnassus Vol. 9 (1937), 35, no. 9
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

self-portraits

Subject

artists

Technical metadata and APIs

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