Young Man and Red Draperyc. 182029 1/2 × 23 1/2"Oil on linenGift of Louise W. Floeckher in memory of Louis M. Colton2010.5.10portrait of a man with white frilly collar and dark colored jacket picture from waist up against a dark backdrop with red curtain or fabric at the left side1549974384Ammi PhillipsPaintingsThe American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain.United StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesMassachusettsConnecticutNew YorkPaintingsThe sitter is possibly Charles D'Emery.Ammi Phillips had an unusually long artistic career, painting hundreds of sitters for more than half a century. One aspect of his enduring success was the artist's ability to adapt and perfectly reflect the aesthetic of each era during which he worked. From his earliest—and only known—advertisements published in 1809 and 1810, we know that the artist was already painting in Massachusetts, and that he promised to portray sitters in the prevailing fashion of the day. For many years this led scholars to believe that several artists were responsible for the bodies of work we now understand to have been painted by Phillips during different periods of activity.
This portrait, once identified as Charles D'Emery, is a transitional work between the dreamy and luminous visions of 1812–1819 and the increasing realism and deepening palette of the 1820s, and still exhibits the coarse-woven linen and lean paint of the earlier period. Phillips included the convention of a red curtain, perhaps influenced by the work of academic painter Ezra Ames, whose portraits he undoubtedly saw hanging in the same fine homes along the Hudson where he himself was receiving commissions.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Young Man and Red Drapery," exhibition label for Recent Gifts. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2013.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org18151825 2010 5 1 The sitter is possibly Charles D'Emery.Ammi Phillips had an unusually long artistic career, painting hundreds of sitters for more than half a century. One aspect of his enduring success was the artist's ability to adapt and perfectly reflect the aesthetic of each era during which he worked. From his earliest—and only known—advertisements published in 1809 and 1810, we know that the artist was already painting in Massachusetts, and that he promised to portray sitters in the prevailing fashion of the day. For many years this led scholars to believe that several artists were responsible for the bodies of work we now understand to have been painted by Phillips during different periods of activity.
This portrait, once identified as Charles D'Emery, is a transitional work between the dreamy and luminous visions of 1812–1819 and the increasing realism and deepening palette of the 1820s, and still exhibits the coarse-woven linen and lean paint of the earlier period. Phillips included the convention of a red curtain, perhaps influenced by the work of academic painter Ezra Ames, whose portraits he undoubtedly saw hanging in the same fine homes along the Hudson where he himself was receiving commissions.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Young Man and Red Drapery," exhibition label for Recent Gifts. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2013.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org