Queen Victoria and Thomas Sully

Rating:
Summary: Short, and intended for scholars...
Review: In general, there is an overall lack of modern scholarship on Thomas Sully, one of the most active American portrait painters of the 19th century. With that in mind, I waited for Carrie Barratt's book with great anticipation. Although this is not a bad book by any stretch, it proves to be somewhat thin. Essentially, the books consists of two parts. Part one is a moderately short (and what appears to be an expanded journal article) essay that chronicles Sully's time in London while awaiting to paint the young Queen Victoria. The second and larger part, is a reproduction of Sully's journal while abroad, which while of great interest to scholars of Sully, it is less than thrilling to the lay reader. While I enjoyed the book and am sure it will come in handy in the course of my Sully studies, it provides little that will be of use to the average art reader.