Happy Birthday, Thomas Sully!
Thomas Sully, born this day in 1783, was one of the finest American portraitists of his day.How surprising to see Daniel La Motte, a Baltimore merchant, lounging so casually in a romantic work by famed portraitist Sully. The way he has his arm thrown around the back of the chair, his hair somewhat disheveled, marks him as a figure of the Romantic era. Sully's image of La Motte is introspective and contemplative, implying something about the inner man. The sunset lends a melancholy feel to this work, more in keeping with the likeness of a poet.… The lush and ample landscape extending behind his firmly planted right hand indicates his holdings on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and presents him as gentleman landowner, rather than simply as a merchant.
Source: Amy Pastan. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).
Pictured: Thomas Sully, 1783 England–1872 USA, Daniel La Motte, 1812–13, oil on canvas mounted on wood, 36 3/8 x 29 in., Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand La Motte III.
Thomas Sully, born this day in 1783, was one of the finest American portraitists of his day.How surprising to see Daniel La Motte, a Baltimore merchant, lounging so casually in a romantic work by famed portraitist Sully. The way he has his arm thrown around the back of the chair, his hair somewhat disheveled, marks him as a figure of the Romantic era. Sully's image of La Motte is introspective and contemplative, implying something about the inner man. The sunset lends a melancholy feel to this work, more in keeping with the likeness of a poet.… The lush and ample landscape extending behind his firmly planted right hand indicates his holdings on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and presents him as gentleman landowner, rather than simply as a merchant.