Biografie von Robert Matthew SULLY (1803-1855)

Birth place: Petersburg, VA

Death place: Buffalo, NY (on his way to Wisconsin)

Addresses: Primarily Richmond, VA; London, England, 1927; Washington, DC, 1931

Profession: Portrait and miniature painter

Studied: Thomas Sully (his uncle), Philadelphia; England

Exhibited: Royal Academy, London, 1825-27; PAFA Ann., 1827, 1831-32, 1876 (posthumously); NAD; Boston Atheneum

Work: Wisconsin Hist. Society; Virginia Hist. Soc.; College of William and Mary

Comments: Established his career in Richmond beginning in 1828; he was working in Philadelphia, Richmond, and Washington in 1831-32, but thereafter worked mainly in Richmond. Painted many portraits of John Marshall during the Constitutional Convention of 1829-30. Also painted a number of Indian portraits.

Sources: G&W; Hart, Register of Portraits, 11; Bolton, Miniature Painters; Graves, Dictionary; Rutledge, PA; Cowdrey, NAD; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Swan, BA; Wisconsin State Hist. Soc., Historical Collections, II, 68. More recently, see Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 2: 16-17; Wright, Artists in Virgina Before 1900.