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

At the opera in December they caught a glimpse of the queen and her ladies in their box. Blanch gave her mother every detail: "The handsomest woman there was the duchess of Sutherland, next to the Countess Mulgrave--a great fat thing in red velvet--only think! She blew her nose." [17] On Christmas eve, Thomas commented on the rain and the delicious dinner he and Blanch ate together, while Blanch outlined the day:

We sallied forth--this time we went down into the city--passed under Temple bar-- walked up as far as St. Pauls and the Bank--came home through Poultty Cheapside, took a squint at Guildhall, continued down thru Pall Mall -- Trafalgar square--saw Marlborough palace with the lion ornamenting the roof--by the way they are fond of placing a huge lion on the tops of houses here--can't say that I approve. [18]

Blanch accompanied her father to many private galleries, public museums, and artists' studios, and, while his impressions of these places were enthusiastic but specific, Blanch never failed to capture the essence of their visit. When they visited the painter Sir William Beechey (1753-1839) on November 14, Sully was disappointed to find that both the man and his work had become "feeble." Blanch wrote: "What detestable daubs his pictures are to be sure." [19] The same day, at the studio of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 -1851), Sully ruminated at length and in detail about "his fine works" and Blanch commented:

What at an Artist! What a nasty looking fellow he is, looks as though he had not an idea--beside that so careless and dirty in his life dress that I would not pick him out of the gutter--yet he can paint so magnificently. [20] As for the painter Charles Landseer (1799--1879), Blanch's opinion was, "cant say I like him." She described the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841) as "fat and jolly looking--and I think a little on the butcher order." [21] lanch seems not to have been enamored of royal celebrities, but like most people in London, she kept an eye out for sightings of the queen. While walking one day Blanch saw the queen and her entourage leaving Buckingham Palace:

The window happily down, I had such a view of the little creature, that I even saw her teeth--She is fat, white and innocent looking, a mixture of Rose and Louisa Campbell, the complexion and chin of the latter--with the nose and eyes like Rose--we think her pretty. [22]

Blanch obviously felt no compunction about comparing the young queen with her friends back home. She may have been encouraged in this by stories circulating at the time that embellished on the queen's youthful energy She relished the rumor that the queen occasionally galloped her horse through the streets of London in the early morning. She shared with her mother a favorite "anecdote of little Victoria:"

The day it snowed so, she was heard to say to her ladies--"What shall we do with ourselves this half hour?--I have it--we'll go play snowball["]--so out they sallied Queen, Duchesses, and all, out on the lawn to play in the snow like so many children and it was only when Lord Melbourne was announced, they ceased their running (I wonder if it be true?) [23]