Thomas Sully
Philadelphia, PA, ca. November, 1842
Thomas Sully Introduces One a Pioneering Nineteenth Century Engraver
ALS

An autograph letter signed, American painter Thomas Sully, penned in a tight, neat hand on integral address letterhead, with fine content and association. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 1842. 1p. 8?x 10?. The letter exhibits toned folds with a few pinholes thereon, in otherwise in very good condition, with the address leaf also accomplished in Sully?s hand. Offered together with a portrait engraving of Sully by Sartain, 7.5?x 10?, mounted to cardstock, with light foxing to margins and a small chip at bottom, not affecting the image.

Also included in this lot is a fine carte-de-visite photograph showing Sully?s house in Philadelphia, with a backstamp by Rehn & Son Galleries. The bottom two corners are clipped, but otherwise this photo is in very good condition. Three pieces in total.

Sully writes to politician John H. Wheeler to introduce the engraver John Sartain, a pioneer of the mezzotint method of reproduction, which caused a sensation in the United States during the nineteenth century. In part: ??My brother Artist, and most esteemed man, will pass through Raleigh on his way further South, and in the hope he may chance to encounter you, I venture a few lines to make him acquainted. Mr. [John] Sartain may not meet with our daughter Ellen, your dear wife, but he can tell you how matters have gone on with all of us for some time past??.

By 1842, Thomas Sully (1783-1872) was at the height of his fame, and his portraits were sought-after by prominent members of American and English society alike. His long list of sitters included Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Marquis de Lafayette, and, of course his most famous subject, Queen Victoria.

Sully met the English-born engraver Thomas Sartain (1808-1897) in Philadelphia after the latter?s emigration to the United States and his settlement into the artistic community there. In 1841, Sartain was just in the early stages of his career, engraving plates for popular serials such as ?Graham?s Magazine? and pioneering the use the mezzotint (half-tone) method of printing. This long favored technique for reproducing paintings as prints had been popular in Europe and England for years, but until the London-trained Sartain brought it to Philadelphia, it was not represented in the United States. Sartain found himself gaining fame by working with popular painters of his day such as Sully, eventually serving as art director of the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The two artists enjoyed a friendship as well as an artistic bond: Sully painted Sartain?s wife in 1843, and Sartain would make a mezzotint of a Sully self-portrait in 1856, among other collaborations.

Sully?s daughter Ellen Oldmixon Sully had married Sully's correspondent, John H. Wheeler, in 1838. In 1842, Wheeler was North Carolina State Treasurer, serving in that position for two years. He later served as United States Minister to Nicaragua (1855?1856).

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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8" x 10"