Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog1830–183530 x 25 " (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Frame: 38 3/8 x 34 1/4 x 2 3/4 " (97.5 x 87 x 7 cm)Oil on canvasGift of Ralph Esmerian2001.37.101521936P2.1984.001Ammi PhillipsPaintingsThe American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain.Vicinity of AmeniaVicinity of AmeniaUnited StatesNew YorkTreasures of Folk Art: Museum of American Folk ArteMuseum - Collection HighlightsPaintingsVicinity of AmeniaDespite the serenity of hundreds of sitters painted by Ammi Phillips, the artist’s life was dramatically bookended by almost incomprehensible events: he was born in the optimistic dawn of the newly formed United States of America, and he died with the country riven by the Civil War. The name “Ammi” derives from the biblical book of Hosea and means “my people.” His works paint a picture of national unity through incisive portraits of friends and neighbors, primarily in the border areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
Phillips’s career is characterized by dramatic shifts in palette and style, from the light-suffused visions of c. 1815 to the color-saturated and stiffly staged portraits of the 1850s and ’60s. Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog was painted during the artist’s so-called Kent period, which lasted from about 1829 through 1838. It is one of several portraits of children wearing similar red dresses and seated with a small dog by their feet. One cannot regard the group without equating their geometric precision and luminosity of large fields of pure color with religious art of the Middle Ages. The symbolic association of rare and costly colors with specific religious figures, such as vermilion used for the robes worn by Mary, is also echoed in this portrait. A clue to Phillips’s professional longevity, even after the introduction of photography, may lie in his earliest known advertisement of 1810, wherein he promises to provide “correct likenesses . . . in the prevailing fashion of the day,” a pledge he was to fulfill for more than fifty years.
Stacy C. Hollander, “Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog,” exhibition label for Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum. Stacy C. Hollander and Valérie Rousseau, curators. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2014.
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.orgDespite the serenity of hundreds of sitters painted by Ammi Phillips, the artist’s life was dramatically bookended by almost incomprehensible events: he was born in the optimistic dawn of the newly formed United States of America, and he died with the country riven by the Civil War. The name “Ammi” derives from the biblical book of Hosea and means “my people.” His works paint a picture of national unity through incisive portraits of friends and neighbors, primarily in the border areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
Phillips’s career is characterized by dramatic shifts in palette and style, from the light-suffused visions of c. 1815 to the color-saturated and stiffly staged portraits of the 1850s and ’60s. Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog was painted during the artist’s so-called Kent period, which lasted from about 1829 through 1838. It is one of several portraits of children wearing similar red dresses and seated with a small dog by their feet. One cannot regard the group without equating their geometric precision and luminosity of large fields of pure color with religious art of the Middle Ages. The symbolic association of rare and costly colors with specific religious figures, such as vermilion used for the robes worn by Mary, is also echoed in this portrait. A clue to Phillips’s professional longevity, even after the introduction of photography, may lie in his earliest known advertisement of 1810, wherein he promises to provide “correct likenesses . . . in the prevailing fashion of the day,” a pledge he was to fulfill for more than fifty years.
Stacy C. Hollander, “Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog,” exhibition label for Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum. Stacy C. Hollander and Valérie Rousseau, curators. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2014.
In June 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the constitution of the newly formed United States. Ammi Phillips was born in April of that same year, in Colebrook, Connecticut, his birth coinciding with the promise of a government formed upon principles of equality and representation by the people. The artist died in 1865, as the nation was attempting to repair the deep wounds inflicted by civil war and the divisive issue of slavery that had undermined its foundations since the country’s very inception. Phillips painted portraits for more than five decades, responding to the desires of his patrons, families who were actively engaged in the political issues of the day. The artist provided validation for landed families living primarily in the border areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York, the portraits presenting a defense against the agrarian lifestyle that was slipping away with the encroachment of industrialization. They were to play a similar role in the modernist era of the early twentieth century, when such portraits once again provided a sense of historical heritage and artistic precedent for artists seeking an authentically American expression. A clue to Phillips’s professional longevity, even after the introduction of photography, may lie in his earliest known advertisement of 1810, wherein he promises to provide "correct likenesses … in the prevailing fashion of the day," a pledge he was to fulfill for more than fifty years.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog," exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020. PortraitP2.1984.00118301835 2001 37 1 Despite the serenity of hundreds of sitters painted by Ammi Phillips, the artist’s life was dramatically bookended by almost incomprehensible events: he was born in the optimistic dawn of the newly formed United States of America, and he died with the country riven by the Civil War. The name “Ammi” derives from the biblical book of Hosea and means “my people.” His works paint a picture of national unity through incisive portraits of friends and neighbors, primarily in the border areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
Phillips’s career is characterized by dramatic shifts in palette and style, from the light-suffused visions of c. 1815 to the color-saturated and stiffly staged portraits of the 1850s and ’60s. Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog was painted during the artist’s so-called Kent period, which lasted from about 1829 through 1838. It is one of several portraits of children wearing similar red dresses and seated with a small dog by their feet. One cannot regard the group without equating their geometric precision and luminosity of large fields of pure color with religious art of the Middle Ages. The symbolic association of rare and costly colors with specific religious figures, such as vermilion used for the robes worn by Mary, is also echoed in this portrait. A clue to Phillips’s professional longevity, even after the introduction of photography, may lie in his earliest known advertisement of 1810, wherein he promises to provide “correct likenesses . . . in the prevailing fashion of the day,” a pledge he was to fulfill for more than fifty years.
Stacy C. Hollander, “Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog,” exhibition label for Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum. Stacy C. Hollander and Valérie Rousseau, curators. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2014.
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.orgDespite the serenity of hundreds of sitters painted by Ammi Phillips, the artist’s life was dramatically bookended by almost incomprehensible events: he was born in the optimistic dawn of the newly formed United States of America, and he died with the country riven by the Civil War. The name “Ammi” derives from the biblical book of Hosea and means “my people.” His works paint a picture of national unity through incisive portraits of friends and neighbors, primarily in the border areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.
Phillips’s career is characterized by dramatic shifts in palette and style, from the light-suffused visions of c. 1815 to the color-saturated and stiffly staged portraits of the 1850s and ’60s. Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog was painted during the artist’s so-called Kent period, which lasted from about 1829 through 1838. It is one of several portraits of children wearing similar red dresses and seated with a small dog by their feet. One cannot regard the group without equating their geometric precision and luminosity of large fields of pure color with religious art of the Middle Ages. The symbolic association of rare and costly colors with specific religious figures, such as vermilion used for the robes worn by Mary, is also echoed in this portrait. A clue to Phillips’s professional longevity, even after the introduction of photography, may lie in his earliest known advertisement of 1810, wherein he promises to provide “correct likenesses . . . in the prevailing fashion of the day,” a pledge he was to fulfill for more than fifty years.
Stacy C. Hollander, “Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog,” exhibition label for Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum. Stacy C. Hollander and Valérie Rousseau, curators. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2014.
In June 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the constitution of the newly formed United States. Ammi Phillips was born in April of that same year, in Colebrook, Connecticut, his birth coinciding with the promise of a government formed upon principles of equality and representation by the people. The artist died in 1865, as the nation was attempting to repair the deep wounds inflicted by civil war and the divisive issue of slavery that had undermined its foundations since the country’s very inception. Phillips painted portraits for more than five decades, responding to the desires of his patrons, families who were actively engaged in the political issues of the day. The artist provided validation for landed families living primarily in the border areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York, the portraits presenting a defense against the agrarian lifestyle that was slipping away with the encroachment of industrialization. They were to play a similar role in the modernist era of the early twentieth century, when such portraits once again provided a sense of historical heritage and artistic precedent for artists seeking an authentically American expression. A clue to Phillips’s professional longevity, even after the introduction of photography, may lie in his earliest known advertisement of 1810, wherein he promises to provide "correct likenesses … in the prevailing fashion of the day," a pledge he was to fulfill for more than fifty years.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog," exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020. Portrait