PORTRAIT OF A LADY

One of the most recognized portraitists 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. Phillips utilized distinctive formulas in rendering clothing and background (see Mary Black, ‘Ammi Phillips: The Country Painter’s Method’, The Clarion (Winter 1986), pp. 32-37). This allowed him to work quickly while still creating detailed images, and it enables attribution of unsigned works through analysis of these repeating elements. The lace collar, bodice and bonnet of the woman in the present portrait are in keeping of those of Anna Farrington Noxon, c. 1837, pictured in David R. Allaway, My People: The Works of Ammi Phillips (2022), vol. I, p. 139, no. 354. Based on this date and the noted comparable images, this painting sits comfortably amongst known works rendered by Phillips during his ‘Kent Period’ which spanned from 1829 to 1838. Other traits characteristic of the ‘Kent Limner’ portraits include stylized balloon-sleeved dresses and posing the sitter leaning on a table with books, as seen in the present work.