Philadelphia portrait painter Thomas Sully's 1819
Passage of the Delaware measures 146.5 x 207 inches. That's over 17 feet wide! Depicting a pivotal Revolutionary War moment on Christmas night 1776, the scene was commissioned by the state of North Carolina for the State House in Raleigh, but it never hung there. In his zeal to undertake the project, Sully put paints to canvas before receiving final dimensions in a letter from North Carolina's governor, and the final painting proved too large for any of the walls in the State House's Senate Hall. Sully found a Boston-based buyer, and the painting was eventually gifted to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1903. Again, its enormity proved problematic, and the painting and its original frame remained in storage for more than a century.
The 2010 completion of the Art of the Americas Wing... with a reinforced wall specifically designed to accommodate the painting's size and weight... finally assures the public can view this colossal masterpiece.
From Boston.com: Photos from the Installation of Passage of the Delaware
