Ammi
Phillips
(b Colebrook, CT, 24 April 1788; d Curtisville, MA, 11
July 1865).
American painter. Apparently self-taught, he began his prolific and
successful career as a portrait painter c. 1811. During his
lifetime, he moved several times across the borders of New York, western
Connecticut and Massachusetts in search of commissions. Like many of the
itinerant artists of the 19th century, he struggled to achieve pictorial
solutions and a distinctive style, yet he developed so dramatically that
historians originally classified his paintings as the work of two
different artists: ‘The Border Limner’ and ‘The Kent Limner’. The earliest
works, from his ‘Border’ period (c. 1812–19), are marked by simple
forms, shaded outlines and soft, pastel colours. They include ambitious
full-length portraits (e.g. Harriet Leavens, c. 1815;
Cambridge, MA, Fogg) as well as three-quarter and bust-length examples (Dr
Russell Dorr, c. 1814–15; Williamsburg, VA, Rockefeller Flk A.
Col.). In the 1820s he experimented with techniques and formats,
developing an attention to detail and naturalism that suggests the
influence of Albany portrait painter Ezra Ames. By the 1830s, the decade
of his ‘Kent’ portraits, his compositions present his sitters as large,
stylized shapes that nearly fill the canvas, while his use of rich,
saturated colours creates striking contrasts of light and dark. Typically
in this decade, his female sitters are shown leaning forward while male
sitters sit upright with one hand draped over a chairback. Among his most
appealing and successful works are portraits of children from this period.
Blond Boy with Primer, Peach and Dog (c. 1838) exemplifies
the bold simplicity of his compositions and the dramatic success of his
designs. After the 1840s he returned to more conventional poses, and by
the late 1850s his work showed the influence of photography. He continued
to work at least until 1862, the year of his last dated paintings.
