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Lot Essay
Deep in thought and with a quill pen at the ready, Dr. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) as painted by Thomas Sully (1783-1872) is portrayed with a quiet and scholarly demeanor. This portrait is a wonderful example of Thomas Sully’s masterful ability to capture an individual’s likeness.
English-born Sully moved to America in 1792 with his parents who were actors and circus performers. Sully performed at least once as an acrobat in his childhood. His first entrance into the professional world was through a short-lived apprenticeship at an insurance brokerage before working with his brother-in-law French miniature painter Jean Belzons (active 1794-1812). Sully painted his first miniature in 1801 while living in Norfolk, Virginia with his older brother and artist Lawrence (1769-1804). In 1803, Sully moved to Richmond and opened his own studio there, before moving again to New York in 1806. A year later he spent three weeks in the Boston studio of America’s leading portraitist of the time Gilbert Stuart. Stuart became a mentor for Sully and their relationship had a great influence on the younger’s work. In their time together, Stuart offered Sully criticism and technical advice, as well as encouragement, furthering the artist’s confidence. By the mid-nineteenth century, Sully was regarded as America’s most recognized portrait painter and over the course of his prolific seventy year career, he produced over two thousand likenesses. Amongst his patrons were the most notable figures of the era, including Presidents Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson as well as English nobility, such as Lord Byron and even the young Queen Victoria.
Dr. Benjamin Rush was a respected physician and politician of Philadelphia. Rush was an outspoken supporter of the American colonies and in 1768, wrote of his alliances to his friend Thomas Bradford, “…I am resolved to devote my head, my heart, and my pen entirely to the service of America…” (L.H. Butterfield ed., Letters of Benjamin Rush (Princeton, 1951), vol. I, p. 54). Upon his return to Philadelphia after studying medicine in Edinburgh, he was given a professorship at the newly formed medical school of the College of Philadelphia in its chemistry department. In 1770, he published America’s first text on the subject A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry. Rush was not only dedicated to the sciences and education, but was also actively involved in politics. He was elected by the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania to be sent as a representative to Congress in 1776 and signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2nd. Out of the fifty-six delegates that signed, Rush was the only one to hold a medical degree. In 1777, he was appointed surgeon general of the Middle Department of the Continental Army. Soon after, he experienced the horrific disarray of army hospitals and resigned from the position in January 1778.
This portrait was painted for Rush’s daughter Anne Emily (Ruth) Cuthbert (1779-1850), six months after her father’s death. The cost of the commission amounted to $150,000 (Biddle and Fielding, p. 254, no. 1530). As it is recorded, the first portrait of the physician was a bust-length version painted in 1809 for Dr. William Potts Dewees (1768-1841), an obstetrician and fellow professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In total, Sully painted six likenesses of Rush, including a full-length one that hangs in the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Pine Center Building. Rush himself was interested in portraiture for its importance as art, but more so for its potential as a tool to study the mind. In 1812, he published one of America’s earliest psychiatric studies, Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind. He theorized that the study of one’s countenance as depicted in portraiture could serve as a means to understand the diseases of the mind. Perhaps here, in this likeness, Sully captures Rush contemplating those ideas.
English-born Sully moved to America in 1792 with his parents who were actors and circus performers. Sully performed at least once as an acrobat in his childhood. His first entrance into the professional world was through a short-lived apprenticeship at an insurance brokerage before working with his brother-in-law French miniature painter Jean Belzons (active 1794-1812). Sully painted his first miniature in 1801 while living in Norfolk, Virginia with his older brother and artist Lawrence (1769-1804). In 1803, Sully moved to Richmond and opened his own studio there, before moving again to New York in 1806. A year later he spent three weeks in the Boston studio of America’s leading portraitist of the time Gilbert Stuart. Stuart became a mentor for Sully and their relationship had a great influence on the younger’s work. In their time together, Stuart offered Sully criticism and technical advice, as well as encouragement, furthering the artist’s confidence. By the mid-nineteenth century, Sully was regarded as America’s most recognized portrait painter and over the course of his prolific seventy year career, he produced over two thousand likenesses. Amongst his patrons were the most notable figures of the era, including Presidents Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson as well as English nobility, such as Lord Byron and even the young Queen Victoria.
Dr. Benjamin Rush was a respected physician and politician of Philadelphia. Rush was an outspoken supporter of the American colonies and in 1768, wrote of his alliances to his friend Thomas Bradford, “…I am resolved to devote my head, my heart, and my pen entirely to the service of America…” (L.H. Butterfield ed., Letters of Benjamin Rush (Princeton, 1951), vol. I, p. 54). Upon his return to Philadelphia after studying medicine in Edinburgh, he was given a professorship at the newly formed medical school of the College of Philadelphia in its chemistry department. In 1770, he published America’s first text on the subject A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry. Rush was not only dedicated to the sciences and education, but was also actively involved in politics. He was elected by the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania to be sent as a representative to Congress in 1776 and signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2nd. Out of the fifty-six delegates that signed, Rush was the only one to hold a medical degree. In 1777, he was appointed surgeon general of the Middle Department of the Continental Army. Soon after, he experienced the horrific disarray of army hospitals and resigned from the position in January 1778.
This portrait was painted for Rush’s daughter Anne Emily (Ruth) Cuthbert (1779-1850), six months after her father’s death. The cost of the commission amounted to $150,000 (Biddle and Fielding, p. 254, no. 1530). As it is recorded, the first portrait of the physician was a bust-length version painted in 1809 for Dr. William Potts Dewees (1768-1841), an obstetrician and fellow professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In total, Sully painted six likenesses of Rush, including a full-length one that hangs in the Pennsylvania Hospital’s Pine Center Building. Rush himself was interested in portraiture for its importance as art, but more so for its potential as a tool to study the mind. In 1812, he published one of America’s earliest psychiatric studies, Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind. He theorized that the study of one’s countenance as depicted in portraiture could serve as a means to understand the diseases of the mind. Perhaps here, in this likeness, Sully captures Rush contemplating those ideas.