Fine Arts

1954.1930; Sully, Thomas; Fanny Kemble as "Julia" in The Hunchback; 1833; oil paint, canvas, gilt wood

The Rosenbach’s collection of paintings includes important American portraits by Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Bass Otis, Matthew Jouett, and John Wesley Jarvis; and European genre paintings including those attributed to Angelica Kauffman and the American expatriate Benjamin West. Many paintings are installed in the historic house where Rosenbach family portraits and travel souvenirs by artists of the school of Caneletto lend a personal quality to the collection.

Drawings range from the Italian Renaissance to the present, and from informal sketches to master drawings to preliminary drawings for book illustration. Artists include 18th-century French masters Fragonard, Le Prince, and Gravelot, as well as a rare portrait by Jacques Louis David; pencil drawings by William Blake and John Tenniel; and drawings from the Rosenbach’s Maurice Sendak holdings.

The collection of prints focuses on those associated with book illustration and shares many original artists with the Rosenbach’s drawings collection. Original artists represented by prints include Aubrey Beardsley, George Cruikshank, John Tenniel, and Charles Balthazer Julien Saint-Memin. Printmakers of note include the Dalziel Brothers, David Edwin, and William Blake. The Rosenbach also preserves nearly two hundred late-18th and 19th-century copper and steel printing plates used in printing both independent works and book illustrations, including designs by such noted artists as Thomas Sully and Titian Peale.

Sculpture in the collections dates from ancient Egypt and Cyprus to 20th-century Europe, with materials including bronze, stone, wood, and ceramic.