Thomas Sully (1783-1872), Portrait of the Brinton Children, circa 1810

Unsigned, oil on panel, framed; verso bears a printed and hand-written label of “The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Memorial Exhibition of Portraits by Thomas Sully,” hand-inscribed, “Ingersoll Children, J. Kearsley Mitchell/ 227 East Rittenhouse SQ.”

23 in. x 27 7/8 in. (sight)

Provenance

Presumed descent to sister of sitters, Margaret Yeates Brinton (1843-1908) and husband, Lt. Colonel Nathaniel Chapman Mitchell (1840-1900), to son John Kearsley Mitchell (1871-1949), President of Philadelphia Rubber Works.

Property of a Mid-Atlantic Institution.

Exhibition

The Memorial Exhibition of Portraits by Thomas Sully, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, April 9-May 10, 1922, no. 119.

Literature

Edward Biddle and Mantle Fielding, The Life and Works of Thomas Sully (1921), no. 201. pg. 107
The Memorial Exhibition of Portraits by Thomas Sully, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1922), no. 119.

Footnotes

The portrait depicts Catharine Ann Brinton (1796-1866), aged 12, and John Steinmetz Brinton (1798-1825), aged 10,
(1804-1858), children of Sarah Frederica Salome Steinmetz (1770-1843) and John Hill Brinton (1772-1827), a Philadelphia lawyer and trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. According to The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts catalog, "Catharine married Edward Ingersoll (1790-1841) in 1816, lawyer of Philadelphia, son of Jared and Elizabeth (Petit) Ingersoll. He died in Florence, Italy. Four Children. John Steinmetz Brinton…was graduated from Yale University in 1816 and spent a year at Oxford University; was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1822; married February 26, 1825, Adelaid Gouverneur, of the well-known New York family of that name, and died a few months thereafter."

Scattered relatively light retouch throughout; largest area of retouch to boy's ruffled collar; under UV light most of the work fluoresces the green of old varnish; presently displays a high gloss varnish. In a 20th century frame.