Thomas and Blanch Sully in London - father and daughter spend time in London while Thomas completed portrait of Queen Victoria

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2000 by Carrie Reboar Barratt

Perhaps the first important thing to know about Thomas Sully's famous portrait of Queen Victoria (P1. 1) is that it did not precipitate his trip to London in 1837. The commission for the portrait came from the Philadelphia chapter of the Society of the Sons of Saint George, which was devoted to supporting indigent English immigrants and their families. Sully received the society's request with one foot on the boat, as it were, for he had already planned the journey.

Ever since a student trip to London in 1809 and 1810, Sully had wanted to return, but was prevented by a thriving career and considerable family obligations. It was the American financial panic of 1837 that finally set him on his way. With commissions flagging and payments for those he had past due, Sully seized the opportunity to leave Philadelphia for awhile in the hopes of making some money in London. His friend Edward L. Carey (1806-1845), a publisher and art collector, offered him an advance on copies of narrative pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), and a number of other Philadelphians placed similar orders. Carey also promised a household stipend to Sully's wife, Sarah Annis Sully (1779-1867). Several affluent friends each contributed ten dollars to fill Sully's traveling purse.

Once in London, Sully regretted having accepted the commission from the Sons of Saint George. On December 3, 1837, he wrote in his journal:

I wish it were the last month of our stay, yet, had I the power I would not break off until my task is finished. It would be said why undertake more than you have the courage to perform? [1]

By the following March, yearning to return to Philadelphia and fed up with the palace protocol that had made him wait so long for a sitting, he wrote his wife:

Had I been able to have guessed that it would have caused me so much delay and bother I would not have hampered myself with the commission. The money to be paid for it will be but a scant allowance for the trouble. [2]

The story of Sully's ultimately magnificent portrait of Queen Victoria turns out to be the tale of an intelligent, confident, and engaging artist in firm possession of his priorities.

Sully was accompanied to London by his twenty-three-year-old daughter Blanch (see Pl. II and Fig. 1), for whom the trip was a chance to learn about English manners, dress, and society. Within a week of their arrival in November 1837 Sully reported to his wife: "Blanch already knows more of London than I do. She is an admirable walker and lovely companion--in fact I could not get on without her." [3] Surrounded by his many children at home in Philadelphia, Sully had only Blanch to look after in London, and he tended to her every need, from new party dresses to medicines when she felt poorly during the harsh winter. Blanch screamed with delight "twas so unexpected," when her father gave her sugar plums and a bottle of Rondelita, the queen's perfume, for Christmas. [4] The two of them lived in a three-room flat for ten months--a situation that acquainted Sully with practically all the habits of a young woman. They went nearly everywhere together, sharing their mutual love of social life, playing music, and writing. Blanch was his stand-in model between sittings with his portrait s ubjects, including the queen.

What is known of the Sullys' time in London is gleaned from Blanch's letters home and Sully's daily journal, memorandum book, and log of his work. [5] The London journal entries are more detailed and richer in content than any he had written before, which was intentional, since the journal was meant to be a chronicle of the trip for his wife. As he wrote her, "I have written a journal of events since my landing that may amuse you when I return home." [6] Blanch wrote home every day and bundled her letters for delivery to Philadelphia about once a month. Sully rarely wrote home, leaving it to Blanch, "as [she] is so exact," to convey their news. [7]

The Sullys first lived in what Blanch called "nice rooms" [8] in Howland Street. Sully's friend the painter Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859) helped them find this boardinghouse in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of the American painters George Peter Alexander Healy (1813-1894) and Thomas Doughty (1793-1856), and a short walk from the family of the artist-naturalist John James Audubon (1780-1851) on Wimpole Street. Blanch slept in the bedroom in "a french bed--the curtains suspended from a royal crown high over my head," while her father slept on the sofa. [9] Late in November the Sullys moved to 46 Great Marlborough Street in Soho, for friends had told Sully that he would attract more visitors and sitters in a better neighborhood. Their new address was closer to museums, galleries, and posh residences. The new apartment was essentially on the same plan as the Howland Street one. Blanch wrote:

Here we are snugly fixed in our new lodgings. The situation first rate being an avenue to Regent and Oxford St. through the Pantheon which is directly opposite to us--our rooms all on one floor--the drawing room all red--the windows-- casements, of course open to the floor on an iron balcony--I have arranged all my goods and chattels--but father being a little more particular is still busy at it. [10]