Woman at a Window (from Sketchbook)

1810–20

Not on view

Sully used his sketchbook as a site of inspiration and study, a place where he might jot down a few figures or work out a composition. The book contains drawings after works by David, possibly Michelangelo, Reynolds, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and other European masters, for the most part taken from prints. Sully was not slavish in using his sources; he took incentive from other artists and obviously felt free to rearrange compositional elements. For example, this drawing of a woman standing at a window is a variation on Rembrandt's 1647 etching of Jan Six. Rembrandt's setting is preserved almost completely, but the Dutch statesman absorbed in reading a journal has been replaced with the neoclassical figure of a woman who, instead of reading the journal in her hands, stares pensively out the window.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Title: Woman at a Window (from Sketchbook)
Artist: Thomas Sully (American, Horncastle, Lincolnshire 1783–1872 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Date: 1810–20
Culture: American
Medium: Pen and brown ink washes (bistre?) on off-white laid paper
Dimensions: 11 1/2 x 8 13/16 in. (29.2 x 22.4 cm)
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1953
Object Number: 53.182.3 recto
Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

By Thomas Sully

From the same time and place

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Hints to Young Painters, and the Process of Portrait-Painting as Practiced by the Late Thomas Sully.

Thomas Sully

J. M. Stoddard & Company

1873

Portrait of a Lady, Thomas Sully American, Watercolor on ivory, American — Portrait of a Lady
Thomas Sully
ca. 1843

Mrs. Thomas Sully (Sarah Annis), Thomas Sully American, Watercolor on ivory, American — Mrs. Thomas Sully (Sarah Annis)
Thomas Sully
ca. 1802

Standing Draped Female Figure; Portrait of a Cleric; Half-length Portrait of a Man; Figures with Wagons and Horses (Napoleon Scene?) (from Sketchbook), Thomas Sully American, Ink, wash, on paper, American — Standing Draped Female Figure; Portrait of a Cleric; Half-length Portrait of a Man; Figures with Wagons and Horses (Napoleon Scene?) (from Sketchbook)
Thomas Sully
1810–20

Composition with Five Figures in Natural Setting, Two Male, Three Female, with a Lyre (Ponnassus?) (from Sketchbook), Thomas Sully American, Ink, wash, on paper, American — Composition with Five Figures in Natural Setting, Two Male, Three Female, with a Lyre (Ponnassus?) (from Sketchbook)
Thomas Sully
1810–20

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