Studio: international art (84.1922)

STUDIO-TALK

African Academy held at the Selborne
Hall, Johannesburg, in the early part of
May last. 00000

PHILADELPHIA—The recent unique
exhibition of Sully's portraits, held at
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts in Philadelphia, brought together
examples of his work from many private
homes and public galleries in the United
States and Canada. The collection and
exhibition of the scattered work of a por-
trait painter whose work is mostly in pri-
vate possession, amounted almost to a re-
discovery. 0 0 0 0 0
Thomas Sully was born at Horncastle,
Lincolnshire, England, in 1783, and
migrated to America at the age of nine,
settling, after several peregrinations, in
Philadelphia. Before his first trip back to
England in 1809, he became a naturalised
American citizen. On this trip he met
Benjamin West, also a Pennsylvanian, and
Sir Thomas Lawrence, from both of whom
he received valuable help in his work, which
he eagerly absorbed. Because of the in-

fluence of the technical manner of the
latter he became popularly known as the
" Lawrence of America." 000

Sully's early teachers had been his own
brother, Lawrence, and the famous Gilbert
Stuart, whom he met in Boston. Although
the manner of both Stuart and Sir Thomas
Lawrence showed in his work, he had a
marked individuality of his own, which can
be seen in his portrait of President James
Monroe, sponsor of the doctrine that bears
his name, and his canvases of the beautiful
English actress, Fanny Kemble, niece of
Mrs. Siddons. Sully had a genial friendli-
ness and sympathy for his sitters that
reminds one of the method of Sir Joshua
Reynolds, both presented their subjects in
an amiable mood, and both were remark-
ably successful with children. 0 0

In 1837 the Society of the Sons of
St. George of Philadelphia commissioned
Sully to paint the portrait cf Queen Vic-
toria. He was then considered the fore-
most portrait painter in America. The
Queen graciously consented, and the
splendid full-length canvas showing the