#ammiphillips

Cornelius Allerton, Ammi Phillips, 1821, Art Institute of Chicago: American Art

As the wealth and population of western New England increased, individuals wished to record their success by preserving their own or their family members' likenesses for posterity. With this increased demand, talented sign painters such as Ammi Phillips saw new opportunities. Phillips taught himself to be a limner—a painter of portraits. By 1811 he had learned painting techniques from other Connecticut limners, who executed full-length, three-quarter, and bust portraits on canvas, wood, and glass. Phillips began to use conventional poses adopted from European prints and became one of the most successful portraitists of the middle and upper classes in rural New England, plying his trade in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. Here Phillips depicted Dr. Cornelius Allerton seated in a painted chair against a somber, gray background. Although the sitter's face is relatively unmodeled, the artist's careful rendering of detail captures a sense of his individuality. The inclusion of a volume of Parr's Medical Dictionary conveys Allerton's profession, while a tiny horse in the distance may suggest his financial status. Itinerant painters such as Phillips were often commissioned to portray several members of a family; in this case, Phillips also completed portraits of Allerton's mother (1946.395) and mother-in-law (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford). This painting was given to the Art Institute by Robert Allerton, the sitter's grandson and an important benefactor of the museum. Gift of Robert Allerton Size: 83.8 × 69.9 cm (33 × 27 1/2 in.) Medium: Oil on canvas

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Colonel Nathan Beckwith, Ammi Phillips, ca. 1817, Brooklyn Museum: American Art

Size: 30 1/2 x 24 9/16 in. (77.4 x 62.4 cm) frame: 34 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 3 3/8 in. (88.3 x 73 x 8.6 cm) Medium: Oil on canvas

Mrs. Mayer and Daughter, Ammi Phillips, 1835–40, American Paintings and Sculpture

Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1962 Size: 37 7/8 x 34 1/4 in. (96.2 x 87 cm) Medium: Oil on canvas

Mrs. Mayer and Daughter by Ammi Phillips, American Paintings and Sculpture

Medium: Oil on canvas

Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1962 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Mrs. Reuben Allerton (Lois Atherton), Ammi Phillips, 1821, Art Institute of Chicago: American Art

Ammi Phillips was a self-taught, itinerant portrait painter and plied his trade in western Connecticut, western Massachusetts, and New York. He first appeared as a professional portrait painter in a July 29, 1809, advertisement placed in the Berkshire Reporter (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), in which he promised to paint likenesses and profiles over the following weeks in his room at Clarke's Tavern. A doctor in Pine Plains, New York, Cornelius Allerton was forty-two years old when Phillips painted him (1946.394). In an accompanying portrait of his widowed mother, the severe, wrinkled Mrs. Allerton wears a stiff bonnet, denoting her age. Both are shown with identifying symbols associated with their work, with Mrs. Allerton holding the Gospel Herald, an evangelical newspaper published in New York City between 1820 and 1827. In contrast, Cornelius holds a volume of Parr's Medical Dictionary on his lap, and his saddled horse appears in the distant background, ready to go at a moment's notice. As a pair—a man of science, out in the world; and a plain woman of religion—they represent the separate spheres of men and women in the nineteenth century. Gift of Robert Allerton Size: 83.8 × 69.9 cm (33 × 27 1/2 in.) Medium: Oil on canvas

Cornelius Allerton, Ammi Phillips, 1821, Art Institute of Chicago: American Art

As the wealth and population of western New England increased, individuals wished to record their success by preserving their own or their family members' likenesses for posterity. With this increased demand, talented sign painters such as Ammi Phillips saw new opportunities. Phillips taught himself to be a limner—a painter of portraits. By 1811 he had learned painting techniques from other Connecticut limners, who executed full-length, three-quarter, and bust portraits on canvas, wood, and glass. Phillips began to use conventional poses adopted from European prints and became one of the most successful portraitists of the middle and upper classes in rural New England, plying his trade in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. Here Phillips depicted Dr. Cornelius Allerton seated in a painted chair against a somber, gray background. Although the sitter's face is relatively unmodeled, the artist's careful rendering of detail captures a sense of his individuality. The inclusion of a volume of Parr's Medical Dictionary conveys Allerton's profession, while a tiny horse in the distance may suggest his financial status. Itinerant painters such as Phillips were often commissioned to portray several members of a family; in this case, Phillips also completed portraits of Allerton's mother (1946.395) and mother-in-law (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford). This painting was given to the Art Institute by Robert Allerton, the sitter's grandson and an important benefactor of the museum. Gift of Robert Allerton Size: 83.8 × 69.9 cm (33 × 27 1/2 in.) Medium: Oil on canvas