PORTRAIT OF A HAXTUN FAMILY MEMBER, PROBABLY SARAH E. HAXTUN (LATER MRS. ISAAC AKIN, 1824-1879)

A prolific portraitist who worked in the border areas of New York and Connecticut, Ammi Phillips rendered likenesses in a number of distinct styles over the course of his long itinerant career. The boldness and sharp realism of the portrait of Sarah E. Haxtun exemplifies the traits seen in the artist’s work from the 1830s, known as the “Kent Limner” period, as for part of this time, he painted sitters from Kent, Connecticut. The present work was likely painted in the mid to later 1830s in Dutchess, New York. It is characteristic of the “Kent Limner” period with the lighter medium brown background, stylized balloon-sleeved dress and pose with her leaning on a table with books (David R. Allaway, My People: The Works of Ammi Phillips (2021), p. 10).