was an American itinerant portrait painter active in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York for five decades. Born on April 24, 1788, in Colebrook, Connecticut, Phillips began a life that spanned the period from the beginning of George Washington's presidency to the end of the American Civil War.
Early Life and Education
Phillips' early education remains obscure to history, although he is often considered a self-taught artist. He may have apprenticed with another artist, but it's clear that Phillips made up his mind to pursue a career as an artist while still young. He enters the documentary record as an artist in 1809, at the age of 21, with advertisements in both
The Berkshire Reporter and a Pittsfield, Massachusetts tavern, proclaiming his talent for painting "correct likenesses," distinguished by “perfect shadows and elegantly dressed in the prevailing fashions of the day.”
Artistic Career
Phillips soon specialized as a portraitist, and his work satisfied the local standard. Within two years, Phillips was receiving regular portrait commissions from community leaders in this area of western Massachusetts. Unlike his illustrious predecessors in American art, such as
Benjamin West of Philadelphia and
John Singleton Copley of Boston, Phillips lived and worked on the rural frontier—a difference which is key to understanding his career.
Phillips' itinerant lifestyle took him regularly between western Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Hudson River Valley. The artist moved on as he exhausted the demand of the local community for painted "likenesses". This wandering lifestyle is archetypically Romantic, rather contrasting with the bourgeois domesticity of his portraits, which are almost always set within interiors.
Notable Works
Some of Phillips' notable works include
George C. Sunderland Painted When at the Age of 21 years by Mr. Ammi Phillips, In the fall 1840, and
Mrs. Isaac Cox and
Deacon Benjamin Benedict, both painted around 1836. These portraits showcase Phillips' superb quality and demonstrate his ability to capture the essence of his subjects.
Phillips may have learned some of his skills from the portraits by
John Vanderlyn he saw hanging in the homes of his wealthy patrons. Some aspects of Phillips' works are reminiscent of Vanderlyn's, such as
The Course of Empire: The Savage State, painted by
Thomas Cole in 1836.
Legacy
Phillips lived into the era of the daguerreotype, and his last portraits show this influence. He died on July 15, 1865, at the age of 72, in Curtisville, Massachusetts, just outside Stockbridge, where his death certificate is filed in the Town Hall. Phillips was buried in Amenia, New York, where he had lived earlier in his life.
Phillips' legacy as an artist has been reconstructed by Barbara and Larry Holdridge, collectors and students of American folk art, with the eventual support of
Mary Black, an art historian. His work provides posterity with a vast archive of early American self-fashioning, and his portraits continue to be admired for their clarity, precision, and sympathy.
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