Catherine Van Slyck Dorr1814–181528 1/4 x 23 1/4"Oil on canvasBequest of W. Bliss Carnochan, The Carnochan Revocable Trust2022.10.10portrait of a young woman seated in paint-decorated chair at a table. holding a book and wearing a blue dress1575218482Ammi PhillipsPaintingsThe American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain.United StatesPaintingsAmerican Folk Art MuseumDavid Allaway, My People: The Works of Ammi Phillips (online, 2019), no. 153.
Stacy Hollander, Revisiting Ammi Phillips (AFAM, 1994), p. 64
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.orgLike the recently acquired portrait of Frederick A. Gale and portrait of Rhoda Goodrich Bentley, this stunningly beautiful and affecting depiction of a young girl dates to Ammi Phillips’ celebrated “Border Limner” period. The picture bears all the hallmarks of the artist’s early work, including the luminous, soft palette, and the tender but intense rendering of the girl’s features. The carefully composed scene communicates a desire to convey a certain refinement and material success which was increasingly becoming accessible to a burgeoning rural middle class during this historical moment. In particular, the elegant paint-decorated chair and the prominently displayed book are reflective of the Dorr family’s status as fashionable and educated members of their rural community. In addition to its exceptional aesthetic qualities, as the portrait of a girl on the cusp of adolescence, this work speaks powerfully of the experience of young womanhood during the Early Republic, serving as a powerful complement to our existing holdings from this period of Phillips’ career including a young boy (Gale) and a woman with her daughter (the Bentleys). 18141815 2022 10 1 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.orgLike the recently acquired portrait of Frederick A. Gale and portrait of Rhoda Goodrich Bentley, this stunningly beautiful and affecting depiction of a young girl dates to Ammi Phillips’ celebrated “Border Limner” period. The picture bears all the hallmarks of the artist’s early work, including the luminous, soft palette, and the tender but intense rendering of the girl’s features. The carefully composed scene communicates a desire to convey a certain refinement and material success which was increasingly becoming accessible to a burgeoning rural middle class during this historical moment. In particular, the elegant paint-decorated chair and the prominently displayed book are reflective of the Dorr family’s status as fashionable and educated members of their rural community. In addition to its exceptional aesthetic qualities, as the portrait of a girl on the cusp of adolescence, this work speaks powerfully of the experience of young womanhood during the Early Republic, serving as a powerful complement to our existing holdings from this period of Phillips’ career including a young boy (Gale) and a woman with her daughter (the Bentleys).