Color Palettes: Thomas Sully (1783 - 1872)

Mrs. Klapp (Anna Milnor), 1814
oil on canvas
36¹⁄₄ X 28 ¹⁄₈ in.

Variously known as "The American Sir Thomas Lawrence," and "The American Patriarch of Painting," the English-born artist, Thomas Sully, was one of America's greatest portrait painters.  Of the 2631 paintings Sully created in his seventy-year career, more than 2000 were portraits¹, including pictures of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, the Marquis de Lafayette, John Quincy Adams, James K. Polk, and the then newly-crowned Queen Victoria (1837).  The vast majority of these works are in collections in the United States.

In 1819, Sully began taking on students, teaching them to paint free of charge.  Due to health and time restrictions, he was eventually forced to limit the number of students to those who were already skilled at drawing and who could afford an annual tuition of $500.  In the 1850s, however, as Sully's domination of the portraiture field began to wane, his thoughts once again returned to teaching on a larger scale.  During this time, he began an art instruction book, but by the time of his death, twenty years later, the manuscript had yet to be delivered to any publisher.

The following information is from that book, Hints to Young Painters and the Process of Portrait-Painting, which Sully revised in 1871, and which was finally published posthumously in 1873.  Though trained as a miniaturist, Sully briefly studied with Benjamin West, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and Gilbert Stuart, whom Sully credited with having the greatest impact upon his career;  it is likely that the color palette Sully recommends in the book is the same he learned from Stuart in the three weeks he studied with the man.

Martha Randolph Jefferson

When a person calls on you to make arrangements for the intended portrait, observe the general manner, etc., so that you may determine the attitude you had best adopt.  The first sitting may be short, as pencil sketches on paper, of different views of the person, will be sufficient to determine the position of the portrait.

Mary Ann Heide Norris, 1830
oil on canvas
30⁵⁄₁₆ X 25¹⁄₄ in.

At the next sitting make a careful drawing of the person on a gray canvas (kept for that particular purpose).  It should be of middle tint, made of white, and black mixed with white:  it must not shine.  This study must be made in charcoal, with its proper effect of shadow relieved with white chalk, using for the middle tint the color of the canvas.  The drapery, also - if time will allow- should be put in.  I find that two hours is long enough to detain the sitter.  I seldom exceed that time;  and six sittings of two hours each is the time I require.  When alone, begin the portrait from memory, fix the canvas by means of the strips of measurement from the top of the canvas and the other marks of distances;  if the person is tall or short, place the head accordingly.  The drawing made from the person in charcoal and chalk will enable you to paint in the effect of the picture with burnt umber on a white ground (some prefer a colored ground).  Paint freely, as if you were using water-colors, not too exact, but in sketchy manner.

Andrew Jackson, 1845
oil on canvas

In this process I use a mixture of drying-oil and spirits of turpentine in equal portions, to moisten my brush as occasion requires.  (In all painting I use only this mixture.)  This preparation may take two days to dry.  Sometimes I hasten this effect by placing my picture in the sun, sheltered from the dust, by the window, and in winter I expose the picture to the fire.  I recommend the use of large brushes.

In the next sitting tints are to be used, and all inaccuracies corrected;  while, of course, the likeness is to be made as close and characteristic as possible.

The following tints I use in the next painting:

These were the colors used throughout Sully's process, however, other colors were added during
different steps, including burnt umber, asphaltum, and madder lake.  In later stages, Sully also
mixed several tints of burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, and vermilion, for ease of refining colors
in the final layer.

The principal colors from which these tints are made are white, yellow ochre (by the way, this color will not keep under water)†, ultramarine (or permanent blue), vermilion, Indian red, raw umber, ivory-black and burnt umber.  These are sold in compressible tubes.

In the use of burnt umber in the first painting, the color in some places, being much diluted with the liquid mixture, is inclined to run.  To prevent this, I place the work horizontally for an hour or two.

As I have previously mentioned, in the next sitting from life, tints are to be used.  See the "Palette" on preceding page.

Dr. Edward Hudson, 1810

oil on canvas

29 X 23¾ in.

Manner of proceeding with the first coloring:  Cover all the forehead with tint No. 2, and use No. 1 to increase the light on such parts as require it.  The first light shadow will be Nos. 2 and 3, mixed;  make the blue tint, No. 3, more pure on the temple.  The white of the eye with Nos. 2 and 3 and, perhaps, a little white.  If it be a blue eye, use black and No. 3.  In a delicate complexion the mixture of 2 and 3 may extend to the lower part of the face.  No. 11 will increase the strength of shadows, and No. 10 will increase it further;  No. 9, ditto, particularly where the shadows are of a cool tint.  Perhaps the shadows in some places will require a warmer hue;  then 13 and 12 will be found useful (they have a little burnt terra sienna in the raw umber tints).  Having adjusted the shadows, a little vermilion and white may be scratched on the cheek and on the lips.

Mrs. George Lingen, 1842
oil on canvas
28½ X 24¾ in. (oval)

The drapery and background should now be painted.  These may be executed from the sketch made from life.  If it is a large picture where more of the person is seen, the drapery must be painted from an exact study made from the person.  The color of the background should be either darker or lighter than the head or drapery.   In the former painting the hair must be painted, the color of which must be a matter of judgment, as hair is of so many different colors that no rule can be offered.  Burnt umber is an excellent color for that purpose;  and Vandyke brown, for dark shadows, is excellent, but it is a bad dryer, and I have reluctantly abandoned the use of it.

We come now to the sixth and last sitting.  In painting this, the same palette of tints is used, with the addition of asphaltum and madder lake.  These are glazing colors, and may be used to darken and improve the shadows of the flesh tints.  The hair and drapery may be glazed with the mixture of asphaltum and madder lake.  To the bottom of the burnt terra sienna add two tints, also to the blue tint and vermilion.  These tints may be employed here and there in improving the color.

The Student, 1839
oil on canvas
23 ½ X 19½ in.

The complexion is part of the likeness.  The tints which I have arranged are for a light complexion;  I merely strengthen the tints, and add Indian red to the vermilion, for dark complexions.

The last operation of the painter is to varnish the picture.

Suffer the picture to dry for about four or five weeks.  Should it remain without varnishing for years, it will not suffer for the want of it;  it will only look dull, and some colors will not show their effect.²

† "Some of the tints and colors that are left may be put away for the following day by means of a small saucer.  Place this in a deep plate and cover it with water;  by this method the colors will keep a day or two."³  Obviously, Sully excluded yellow ochre from this method of preserving colors.



¹ Thomas Sully (1783-1872), as retrieved December 15, 2011 from [www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/sully/biography/index.html].
² Thomas Sully, Hints to Young Painters and the Process of Portrait-Painting, (J.M. Stoddart & Co., Philadelphia, 1873), pp. 15-22.
³  Sully, p. 13.