Thomas Sully. George Frederick Cooke as Richard III, 1811.


Oil on canvas, 60.5 x 95 inches. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia.


Sully began the painting several weeks after Cooke arrived in Philadelphia for the theatrical season. Sully poses the malevolent Richard to contrast ironically with the benign statue of the Virgin in the background. Cooke died in 1812, a year after Sully painted him in one of his celebrated roles.