Philip Slade

Ammi Phillips

1818 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

Phillips began his career about 1809 as an itinerant portraitist working the Massachusetts-Connecticut border. He would settle in one particular community or another and paint portraits in that vicinity until moving on in search for more commissions. This sitter may have come from Lansingburgh or Hoosick, New York. Phillips's finest works are characterized by their radical simplicity and coloristic refinement; here his forceful design is evident in the sitter's penetrating gaze and taut linear silhouette.

Artist

Ammi Phillips

Date

1818

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1964