Thomas Sully's Portrait of Pocahontas

Time Period
16,000 BCE to 1622 CE
1825 to 1860
Topics
American Indian History
Art & Architecture
Women's History
Image
Pocahontas_Polarized.1852.2.jpg

In this portrait, Thomas Sully depicts Pocahontas after her absorption into English culture and before the fateful trip to England from which she did not return. Conscious of brewing sectionalism, Sully devised an image that would please Virginians, and he donated this portrait to the Virginia Historical Society (today, the VMHC), perhaps as a way of winning new patrons in Pocahontas's native state. 

Learn about the life of Pocahontas in this video: