This is a portrait of Adm. Samuel Phillips Lee completed by Thomas Sully in 1845. Lee joined the Navy when he was 13 years old and rose in the ranks quickly. In 1843 Lee, then a lieutenant, married Elizabeth Blair. The couple resided in Lee House, next door to her family home, Blair House. Blair House is located across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and has been used as the president's guest house since the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.

Thomas Sully was an American portrait artist who painted portraits of Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and many musicians and composers.