Inside Back Cover (from Sketchbook) 1810 - 1820

Editor: This is a peek into Thomas Sully’s sketchbook, from the years 1810 to 1820, specifically the inside back cover. It’s a series of pen and ink sketches of figures, seemingly in contemplation or repose. It gives the feeling of observing intimate, private moments. What strikes you most about this sketchbook page? Curator: What's most compelling for me is considering what these quick sketches tell us about representation itself. During Sully’s time, there was a huge push for idealized, formal portraiture, often accessible only to a privileged few. But here, we see the artist playing with form and identity outside those constraints. These weren't meant for public consumption, correct? Editor: Presumably not, given it’s a page in a personal sketchbook. Curator: Exactly. So how do these studies—these less polished, arguably more candid representations—speak to or subvert the dominant visual language of the time? Consider who had the power to be represented, and *how*. Whose stories weren’t being told in the polished portraits? Perhaps these sketches are a subtle act of resistance, a space where Sully explored diverse representations of humanity outside the strictures of commissioned work. Editor: That’s a fascinating point. Thinking about it as a space of free expression, away from the expectations of commissioned portraits, really opens up the possible meanings. Curator: Absolutely. What if we read these figures not just as studies in form, but as a silent commentary on the politics of visibility? How does it reframe our understanding of Romanticism? Editor: That’s made me completely reconsider the piece and context, thank you! I’ll never see sketches the same way again.