Portrait of Sarah (Sally) Totten Sutherland (1787-1868), circa 1841

Sarah Totten Sutherland was born in 1787 in Amenia, New York to Israel and Esther (Warren) Totten. She married Roger Barton Sutherland, and remained in Amenia, where her portrait was painted by Ammi Phillips. On the basis of information inscribed on the verso of a portrait Phillips painted of her daughter, Nancy, Sarah Sutherland may have sat for Phillips in 1841. One of four identical portraits, the subject had a likeness of herself painted for each of her four daughters. All are identical, except for the embroidery on the right side of her lace collar, which has different number of interlocking circles in each - possibly the artist's coding method. The portrait illustrated here was painted for Nancy Totten Sutherland Rundall, wife of Colonel Henry Rundall. Roger and Sarah Sutherland's other daughters for whom portraits were made were Euphemia Johnson Sutherland Palmer, wife of David Palmer, Jane Amanda Sutherland Mead, and Hannah Esther Sutherland Per Lee, wife of Platt Per Lee. The portrait painted for Euphemia Johnson Sutherland Palmer may be the Phillips portrait of Sarah Totten Sutherland at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.