(From Sketchbook) 1810 - 1820

Editor: So, here we have "(From Sketchbook)" by Thomas Sully, created sometime between 1810 and 1820. It’s at the Met. It looks like ink on paper, and feels almost… intimate, like peeking into the artist's mind. All these different figures sketched on one page. What stands out to you about this work? Curator: What strikes me is the sheer materiality of it. We are looking at the artist's process, the physical act of Sully working through ideas. The use of pen and ink – readily available, relatively inexpensive materials – speaks to the everyday nature of artistic labor. It challenges the romanticized notion of the artist waiting for divine inspiration. Editor: So you see it as a kind of documentation of labor? Curator: Precisely. These weren’t meant to be displayed, but were crucial steps in his practice. Note how the varied groupings of people, perhaps studies for larger compositions, reflects the practical considerations of Sully's profession; fulfilling commissions, studying poses, testing light. This is production at its most basic level. We aren't seeing the end product, the finished "artwork", we're seeing art as work. Editor: It’s like a behind-the-scenes look at how he made a living. It makes you think about the social context – who was buying his art, and what skills he needed to survive as an artist in that time. Curator: Exactly. Sully wasn't working in a vacuum. His production was intimately linked to the market, to the demands of patronage and portraiture. Think about who had access to art, what were the means and systems of art consumption. It really transforms how we consider Sully as an artist. Editor: I never really considered it that way before; how much an artist’s process reveals about the economy around artmaking itself. Thanks for opening my eyes. Curator: And thank you, for framing this initial approach of looking at the work in such interesting ways! It reinforces the fact that we should always remember that art history, essentially, starts with materiality, labour, and process.