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| Decatur by Thomas Sully |
Thomas Sully (1783-1872) was an American portrait painter, born in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England, and brought by his parents to Charleston, S.C., in 1792. After a desultory training under a French miniature painter, Sully removed to New York in 1806. Eventually he settled in Philadelphia. In 1837 he visited England, painting the portrait of Queen Victoria for St. George's Society, Philadelphia. Among his best-known portraits are those of Commodore Decatur in the City Hall, New York City; General Lafayette in Independence Hall and George Frederick Cooke in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; and Thomas Jefferson (1821) in the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. Thomas Sully is represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, by nine portraits, including those of his wife, daughter, and himself.
