Sarah Annis Sully (Mrs. Thomas Sully)

Born at Annapolis, Maryland, Sarah Annis (1779–1867) married Lawrence Sully, elder brother of the artist and a miniaturist by profession. Thomas Sully was a pupil of his brother and lived with him in Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia, until Lawrence's death in 1804. After supporting his widowed sister-in-law and her children for two years, Sully married her and became the father of three sons and six daughters. A register kept by Sully records several portraits of his wife, including one that he executed for himself in 1832. This is probably that work. According to an inscription on the work, Sully apparently gave the picture to his daughter, Jane Darley, in 1851. The Museum also possesses a miniature of Mrs. Sully (28.169.1) dated to around 1809.