Lot 10: *THOMAS SULLY (1783-1872) PORTRAIT OF MRS. JAMES ROBB AND HER THREE CHILDREN

oil on canvas 56 1/2 by 45 1/4 in.143.5 by 114.9 cm. Painted in 1844. James Robb (1814-1881) moved to New Orleans by the age of twenty-four, "...and was a resident of that city for more than two decades, becoming active in the establishment of banking and commercial houses or agencies in New Orleans, St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York, Philadelphia and Liverpool. In New Orleans he set up a private bank, the Bank of James Robb. According to an autobiographical statement (post), he made six visits to Europe and fifteen to Cuba. In 1842 he became president of the New Orleans Gas Light & Banking Company, and two years later, he headed a newly established gas light company of Havana, Cuba, with the capital, as he observed, divided equally between himself and the queen mother of Spain" (Dumas Malone, ed., Dictionary of American Biography, 1935, vol. VIII, p. 644). In 1836 Robb married Louisa Werninger (1805-1855) and they had three daughters, Isabella, Louisa and Mary. The Robbs travelled together to Philadelphia in 1844, and Thomas Sully began this painting on August 3rd, finishing the composition on November 21, 1844. At this time, Sully was Philadelphia's and America's most esteemed portraitist. Robb, a prominent art collector, patronized other American artists such as Thomas Doughty, Asher B. Durand and Daniel Huntington. Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. James Robb, New Orleans Descended directly in the family to the present owners Literature: Charles Henry Hart, A Register of Portraits Painted by Thomas Sully 1801-1871, 1909, no. 1419 Edward Biddle and Mantle Fielding, The Life and Works of Thomas Sully, 1921, p. 260, no. 1479.