Thomas Sully was born in England in 1783, and came with his family to the United States in 1792. He received his first art lessons from his schoolmate Charles Fraser. Sully was then apprenticed to his brother-in-law, the French-born miniaturist Jean Belzons. He opened his first studio in Richmond in 1804. After meeting John Trumbull in New York, he commissioned the artist to paint his wife in order to study the elder artist's technique. In summer 1807 he traveled to Boston where he sought out Gilbert Stuart and spent some three weeks studying with him. After Stuart’s death, Sully was considered the most successful American portrait painter. In 1837 he traveled to England to paint a full-length portrait of Queen Victoria. By the time of his death in 1872, Sully had painted more than 2000 portraits.