Lot 381
Thomas Sully (American, 1783-1872), 'A Young Woman in a Moment of Inspiration', mid-19th c., signed with monogram initials en verso, oil on canvas, 24 in x 20 in., framed E5000-7000 Note: While such uplifted faces and upturned eyes have been a fixture of Sully's style since his early maturity (E O'Neill, 1822, Hist Soc Penna.), the closest dated parallels to this image are from the 1830s and 1840s: R K Sully, 1 39, Metropolitan Museum of Art, similarly initialed (eyes, hair, hand); M.C Sully, 1842, private collection (hair, neck, shoulder ; 'Juliet', 1843, Library Co of Phila (close analogy for hair); Girl with Books and Flowers, 1845, private collection, similarly initialed similar non-portrait subject): for those parallels, see Penna Acad Fine Arts, 'Memorial Exhibition', 1922, nos 98, 113; and M.H Fabian, 'Mr Sully, Portrait Painter', Washington, 1983, nos 62, 65, 71 Since this may well be a later work, however, it probably relates most closely to the 'fancies', or non-portrait figural compositions, which predominated among the paintings of his last years: in addition to more than 2000 portraits and 65 miniatures, Sully's oeuvre includes some 550 paintings of such unspecific subjects.
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