ABSTRACT

Interest in Federal era portraits – Thomas Sully's Byron is one – peaked in the 1920s, a time when one could buy a Van Gogh for a pittance. The market for Federal portraits has, in relative terms, declined ever since. Like the Veronese, the Van Gogh, and the Stuart, Sully's Byron is a major work of art. It may never command the impressive sums they did, but for some – Byron and Sully aficionados but also admirers of good portraiture – it may be no less important. Visual images can exert almost irresistible power. The most famous painting in the world – the Mona Lisa – is a portrait, one which enthralls but whose meaning puzzles and eludes the scrutiny. Images can induce fear – and hope – as well. Painted portraits may engage people's minds more intensely and at deeper levels of personal involvement than sculpture or photographs. They are more fully products of a living hand.