細節
SULLY, THOMAS, painter. Two autograph letters signed ("Thos Sully"), to John Young Mason, Secretary of the Navy; Philadelphia, 13 and 18 June 1847. Each one page, 4to, recipient's dockets on veros of integral blank leaves.
Born in Britain in 1783, Thomas Sully came to America as a child and settled in Philadelphia in his twenties. By the 1830s, after the deaths of Charles Willson Peale and Gilbert Stuart, Sully had become the most highly respected American portraitist. His many subjects spanned a century, from Lafayette to Queen Victoria. The present letters relate to his portraits of President James Polk and of Navy Secretary John Young Mason, commissioned by the University of North Carolina.
13 June: "I addressed a letter to you at Chapel Hill with particulars concerning the portraits which I am painting of the President and you. It would be wise to have them framed here, and I should be glad to learn if that is resolved, and which of the three kinds of Frames which I sent a list of is chosen. Please inform me, as no time should be lost in having the Frames prepared." (A postscript lists the three types of frames with an estimate of their prices). 18 June: "I have finished the portraits of the President and Secretary Mason, and shall forward them....I would be much gratified to be enabled to address each portrait to the proper Society; and to know the best route for their conveyance to Chapel Hill. They will be sent without frames, as none were ordered." (2)
Born in Britain in 1783, Thomas Sully came to America as a child and settled in Philadelphia in his twenties. By the 1830s, after the deaths of Charles Willson Peale and Gilbert Stuart, Sully had become the most highly respected American portraitist. His many subjects spanned a century, from Lafayette to Queen Victoria. The present letters relate to his portraits of President James Polk and of Navy Secretary John Young Mason, commissioned by the University of North Carolina.
13 June: "I addressed a letter to you at Chapel Hill with particulars concerning the portraits which I am painting of the President and you. It would be wise to have them framed here, and I should be glad to learn if that is resolved, and which of the three kinds of Frames which I sent a list of is chosen. Please inform me, as no time should be lost in having the Frames prepared." (A postscript lists the three types of frames with an estimate of their prices). 18 June: "I have finished the portraits of the President and Secretary Mason, and shall forward them....I would be much gratified to be enabled to address each portrait to the proper Society; and to know the best route for their conveyance to Chapel Hill. They will be sent without frames, as none were ordered." (2)