A pale-skinned woman wearing a shimmering, pearl-white dress stands next to a harp, which is taller than she is, in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body faces us, but she angles her head slightly to our right. She looks up and off into the distance with gray-blue eyes under dark, curved brows. She has an oval face with a narrow chin. Her cheeks are flushed, and her full pink lips are closed. Her hair is pulled up, and chin-length curls frame her face. A ruffle, perhaps of lace, lines the low neckline of her dress, which has a sheen suggesting satin or silk. The gown has short, cap sleeves and falls in a narrow A-line to her pointed white shoes.

   One foot rests on a pedal at the base of the harp, and behind her is a low stool with a round, dark orange upholstered seat and a wood pedestal base. A topaz-blue brocade-patterned scarf with fringed narrow ends falls over one of the woman’s shoulders, down her back, across the stool, and then puddles on the floor. The woman’s right arm, on our left, rests over the upward curving neck of the harp. She holds a T-shaped tuning key in that hand. Her other hand reaches across her body to touch the strings. The crown of the harp is ornately carved with leaves, and the instruments rests on low, clawed feet. The carpet or floor is patterned with concentric circles and patterned rings in peach, moss green, soft yellow, and pink. A gray stone column rises to our right behind the woman, and a ledge spans the rest of the space behind her. The landscape beyond has hills and trees leading back to the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. Parchment-brown clouds swirl against a muted blue sky above. The artist signed the work as if his initials and date were written on the base of the harp. The intwined letters T and S are followed by the date, 1818.

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   When Thomas Sully painted fifteen-year-old Eliza Ridgely in the spring of 1818, he was widely regarded as America's leading artist. Particularly noted for his graceful images of women, he was a natural choice to paint this Baltimore merchant's daughter.

   In painting Eliza, Sully emphasized her privileged social status as well as her delicate, youthful charm. Her family affluence is indicated by her up-to-the-minute hair style and dress, inspired by contemporary European designs in the neo-Grecian manner. The satin of her Empire gown is carefully described through fluid brushwork and brilliant highlights. Eliza, as a young lady of cultural accomplishment, posed with her European pedal harp. She idly plucks the harp strings and gazes dreamily into space, as if musing on the lyrical chord she strikes. A fiery sunset heightens the romantic reverie.

   Although she may very well have possessed luminous eyes, arched brows, and a porcelain complexion, Miss Ridgely's figure has been greatly idealized. Sully, for the sake of fashionable elegance, exaggerated her legs to half again as long as any conceivably normal proportion. Sully once wrote, "From long experience I know that resemblance in a portrait is essential; but no fault will be found with the artist, at least by the sitter, if he improve the appearance."

   More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II, pages 151-159, which is available as a free PDF (21MB).

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