Nice painting(and frame!). If there is an art museum in your area, I'd talk to someone there first before attempting to clean this myself. They might be able to refer you to someone who can clean it for you for a reasonable price.

It's lovely!....I would go to an art store and buy a nice squirrel water color brush ( won't be cheap) and carefully brush it with that.....
I would keep a kleenex moistened with a biut of alcohol in my hand and now and then wipe the brush with that....and wave the brush in the air to dry it....and brush some more.....gently of course.
Those old plaster covered frames are so fragile....
Linda C

Thanks all. That's really not what I was hoping to hear, but I can see the point. Our closest museums are an hour away, so I'd likely have to remove it and transport it...unless you think folks who do this kind of work travel. I'd rather not pay out the yin-yang for it, but I guess we've gotta do what we've gotta do to preserve a (likely) valuable piece of artwork.

As an aside, anyone know how to go about getting more info about the provenance of this painting BEFORE hiring an appraiser? Back to the museums?

Susan

If you google, there's lot of information on this artist and what his work has fetched at auction. You should call your closest musuem, speak to the American arts curator, and then prepare to drive to them. If you want to sell it at auction, usually the big houses have people who come to you.

Oh, I should be clear. We're not interested in appraising it for sale, but rather for insurance purposes.

I can't tell you what I'd give to have guys like the Keno brothers wander around and comment on the value of some of the things we've inherited from my husband's family. I think I'd be enthralled, excited and ascared all at once!

Thanks again!

Susan

There should be a signature on his paintig..but some were not signed....and as he was a well known artist, I'll bet someone has documented everything he has done....well that it is know that he has done.
Wondering how long it has been in your husband's family and if there is written record as to when and where it was acquired.
I am more inclined to think it is "after the style of Sully"...but certainly of the period and for sure very very nice!
But a gentle dusting with a squirrel brush never hurt anything!...in fact removal of dust is good for preservation of about any item.
And if you have items you know nothing about....post pictures, someone passing through here will have an idea of what it is, and if you should have it professionally restored/appraised.
As for the portrait, it likely would bring in the neighborhood of $20,000 at auction....so perhaps it might be a good idea to make the drive to the museum and have it properly cleaned and insured.
Linda C

And the frame, if original and in good condition (or well-restored), is definitely worth putting money into.

I was watching one of those "what's is it and what is it worth" shows, and someone's $$$$ prized original work of art was really a print worth way less $$$$, but the frame was a late 18th century knockout of gilt gesso appraised at several thousand dollars!

As far as provenance ... who is the woman supposed to be? Does this line up with the known dates that Sully was active, and with the fashions shown in the picture?

How does she relate to your family and how did the picture end up with you?

Her name is Delilah Maria Stearly. According to the handwritten card that accompanies the painting, she was born Nov. 9, 1814 to a Nilson Henry Stearly and Adaline M. Stearly, and married a John C. Yeager. Apparently at one point, there was another portrait of Nilson and a sampler done by Adaline, but I'd have to do some inquiring to find out what happened to those peices. Likely they were parcelled out to other family members (and probably sold) when my husband's grandmother died.

I'll post another thread with some other items of interest that we have. This is fun!

Susan

"Her name is Delilah Maria Stearly. According to the handwritten card that accompanies the painting, she was born Nov. 9, 1814 to a Nilson Henry Stearly and Adaline M. Stearly, and married a John C. Yeager."

I doubt that this is Delilah, although it may be her mother. The subject of the portrait is not a girl, which puts the date of the painting at 1830 at the earliest to make Delilah at least 16.

Women tend to wear their best, most fashionable gowns for portraits. The clothing on the woman is definitely not from the 1830s ... the all-white muslin gown with the shawl, low neckline, cross-front bodice and raised waistline was fashionable between 1790 and about 1810 in various forms. By 1825, it was stiffly puffed sleeves, off-the-shoulder necklines, corseting at the normal waistline, and more ornate fabrics and trim.

Leigh Keno owns Leigh Keno American Antiques and Leslie Keno is the head of American furniture and decorative arts at Sotheby's, so there's no reason you couldn't call them up, and ask for a recommendation for an appraiser.

I can see no reason to believe the portrait wasn't painted when Delilah was in her 30's toward the end of Thomas Sully's life, and elected to be painted wearing clothing that appeared to be almost classical Greek.
But more likely it was a wedding portrait...
Frequently portraits were not a recording of the style of the time but the person in a non distracting dress. And as the story goes additional props and extensive jewelery and embillishments cost more.

Linda -
Forget what the hand-written card says, and look at the picture ... I see a young woman in a double strand of pearls, a voluminous gauzy white shawl, wearing a white gauze dress with a wrapped bodice and a raised waistline, and a very sleek hair style. Everything I see in the picture is consistent with it being painted between 1790-1810.

Sully was a "society painter", catering to the wealthy, so paying a few dollars more for detail was not a problem for his sitters. He wasn't the travelling portrait painter who had stock canvases he painted heads onto, charging extra for personalization. Sully's fame was so great that women travelled WEEKS to get to his studio. This portrait was an expensive status symbol for the man who paid Sully to do it. And a fashionable young woman would not sit for a portrait in less than her fashionable best.

The fashion for all-white, filmy, Greek-inspired clothing (on women) was over before Delilah was born. Look at known Sully portraits from the 1830s and see what they look like. Neckline, fabric, shape is all different.

Also, by the time Delilah was old enough for this to be her (1830s), the "a la greque" fashions were considered not only unfashionable, but verging on immoral. Posing for a portrait in a Directoire style muslin gown would have been like posing in your corset cover ... unthinkable!

"There is supposedly another portrait by the same artist of Nilson Henry Stearly and a sampler done by Adiline, but we are not aware of their whereabouts. They might have been sold when DH's grandmother died."
Stories about family change over time, and ownership of objects and identities of portraits are misremembered unless you have someone who writes it all down as it happens and a family that preserves the writings. It's just as likely that this is Adiline's portrait, to match Nilson's, and the sampler was done by their daughter Delilah.

The index of Sully's paintings is fairly complete, and it would be worth looking into it to see if he mentions the painting.

I'll do that, LazyGardens. Any idea where to begin? I'm a bit noobie at this.

By the way, everyone's impressions and opinions are downright fascinating. Carry on! :)

Susan

You don't specify where you live, but I'd start with the closest art museums ... ask for the hours their reference library is open. They are usually open for public research.

Or any university with an art department.

As for the family heirlooms: are any of the relatives into geneaology? Provenance can be improved if you can show that the family history makes it reasonable for the object to have been theirs. If you can be sure when and where they lived, and what their wills bequeathed to the next generation, things get a lot easier.

My dirt-poor ancestors wouldn't have had furniture and oil paintings to bequeath me ... but I have my great-grandfather's buffalo skinning knife, my mom's beaded fringed buckskin wedding gloves, and some shamanic doo-dads from an old Indian friend of my dads.

Thank you Lazygardens.

I'm closest to Richmond, VA or Washington D.C. There are of course, the Smithsonians, but that's a bit of a trek (not to mention a little intimidating). VCU in Richmond has an Art Department. Beyond that, I'd have to do a little hunting. I don't think any of the other major Virginia schools are known for art (UVA, VaTech), but I'll check.

I'll also check with DH on the geneaology aspect. Maybe his aunt? At any rate, I sense the need to get all of this stuff written down NOW, before people start getting too old to remember the details! I think it's really cool that you have some of your family's belongings. I have nothing from my mother's side except my Grandmother's pearls. All of these things you see here come from DH's side of the family -- thank goodness they kept things!

Thanks again for the advice!

Susan

You should call or email a curator at The National Portrait Gallery. He or she can direct you to an appraiser. Don't be intimidated, that what curators live for--an unknown painting by a listed artist. But don't just show up with it under your arm, either (LOL).
Or try an art historian whose speciality is American art. Call the Art History dept. of UVa or VCU or Hollins.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hollins Art history Faculty

I would contact Colonial Williamsburg - they have experts in 18th century art that are on staff....they are often very helpful in matters like this.

Thanks! I never would have thought of Williamsburg, and I never heard of Hollins (don't mind me, I live in a cave...). I need to make a list now of all the things I need to do. And to think...I just wanted to move the painting. :)

Here it is, moved. The easy way.

{{gwi:1382187}}

Tee-hee. Done! Thanks Photoshop! :)

Susan