Thomas Sully

John Neagle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Neagle’s relationship with Sully was both professional, as the younger artist spent a good deal of time absorbing the older portraitist’s advice on stylistic and technical matters, and personal, as Neagle married Sully’s niece and stepdaughter, Mary Chester Sully, in 1820. The artist’s portrait sketch of his father-in-law, taken from life on February 17, 1831, evinces a robust delight in making a quick study. Sully is portrayed in his studio, with palette and a fistful of brushes, holding his maulstick. A portrait in progress leans against an easel to his right, and he rests his left hand on another, freshly stretched, canvas.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art