Portrait of Blanch Sully

Blanch Sully was twenty-five years old when her father, Thomas Sully, painted this bust portrait of her. She is shown with her body turned toward the left but her head and gaze to the right, creating a graceful twist that shows off her slender neck and varies the features of her face. Secured by a headband across her forehead, Blanch's hair is looped under her ears from the front and gathered at the back according to the fashion of the day. A dark shawl covers her shoulders, allowing only a small glimpse of her red dress. Sully left the bottom edge of the image unfinished and the background vague, thus concentrating the viewer's attention on the placid oval face of his beloved daughter. The fluid brushwork, delicate features, and dreamy gaze of the subject are typical of Sully's flattering portrayals.

Blanch was the fourth child and second daughter of the six children born to the painter and his wife, Sarah Annis Sully; their family also included Sarah's three daughters from her first marriage, to Sully's elder brother Lawrence, a miniature painter who died in 1804. Blanch seems to have been her father's special favorite. She often modeled for him, standing in for female subjects between sittings, and she accompanied the painter on his walks through Philadelphia, where Sully had established his studio in 1807. In 1837, she alone accompanied her father to London, where he spent ten months cultivating and executing portrait commissions. The most important was a full-length likeness of the newly crowned, teenaged Queen Victoria ordered by the Philadelphia-based Society of the Sons of Saint George, for which Blanch modeled (1838, Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Prior to their trip, Blanch had never traveled further from Philadelphia than West Point, New York, where her brother was a cadet at the military academy. Her numerous letters home reveal Blanch as a young woman of spirit and candid observation. Her father praised her as an ideal companion, and he later took her with him to Charleston, South Carolina. Blanch was not the only family member Sully painted, but this work, made soon after their return from their London sojourn and the completion of his portrait of Queen Victoria, seems a tribute to their special bond. It remained in the Sully family for more than eight decades.

Exhibition of Portraits, Miniatures, Color Sketches, and Drawings by Thomas Sully, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, 1921, no. 4 (as Portrait of Blanche Sully).

Queen Victoria and Thomas Sully, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York (organizer). Venues: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, September 18, 2000–December 31, 2000; The Wallace Collection, London, England, January 22–April 29, 2001. [exh. cat.]

(Re)Presenting Women, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002.

D'une colonie à une collection: le Musée d'Art Américain Giverny fête ses dix ans (From a Colony to a Collection: Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 30–June 16, 2002.

Culture Revisited: Samuel F. B. Morse's 'Gallery of the Louvre,' Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, July 12–November 3, 2002.

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003.

Deux collections en regard: oeuvres de la Terra Foundation for the Arts et du Detroit Institute of Arts (Side by Side: Works from the Terra Foundation for the Arts and the Detroit Institute of Arts), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 2–June 1, 2003. [exh. cat.]

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004. [exh. cat.]

Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940 (Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France and Miedzynarodowe Centrum Kultury (International Cultural Center), Cracow, Poland (organizers). Venue: International Cultural Center, Cracow, Poland, February 15–May 7, 2006. [exh. cat.]

Thomas Sully: Painted Performance, Milwaukee Art Museum (organizer); Venues: Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 11, 2013–January 5, 2014; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas, February 8–May 11, 2014 [exh. cat.]

Biddle, Edward and Mantle Fielding. The Life and Works of Thomas Sully (1783–1872). Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Wickersham Press 1921. No. 1691, p. 284.

Barratt, Carrie Rebora. Queen Victoria and Thomas Sully. (exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press in association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Ill. p. 48 (color).

Barratt, Carrie Rebora. "Thomas and Blanch Sully in London." The Magazine Antiques 158:3 (September 2000): 354–59. Ill. p. 354 (color).

Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Text p. 68; ill. front cover (color), p. 69 (color).

Rudolph, William Keyse and Carol Eaton Soltis. Thomas Sully: Painted Performance. (exh. cat. Milwaukee Art Museum). Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Milwaukee Art Museum, 2013. Text, pp. 47, 166 (checklist); ill. cat. no. 46, p. 141 (color). Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee, eds. Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook. Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2018. Text p. 39; ill. p. 39 (color).