Countries throughout the world have rich traditions of folk art. This art form includes furniture, decorative objects, sculptures, and paintings that are made in communities by craftspeople who develop a local style without academic training. In the United States, folk art flourished from the late 18th into the 20th century; folk painters were primarily concentrated in the rural Northeast. Portraitists were often referred to as limners, a word whose artistic connotation extends to Medieval Europe where it was used to describe manuscript painters.
Preeminent Folk Artist
Decades of research has revealed that Phillips was the most prolific and arguably the most important folk artist of his time. His successful career spanned 55 years and led to perhaps 2,000 works, of which almost half are known. Today, his paintings are coveted by museums and private collectors. His depictions of children—some of his most beloved works—provide a lens to understand the socioeconomics and culture of the day.
Most folk artists were itinerant and traveled from place to place to find clients. While Phillips, who was born in Colebrook, Connecticut, lived in the western part of that state, Massachusetts, and New York, he was prosperous and never took on a second line of employment, which was unusual.
Border, Kent and Phillips
The works previously assigned to “Border Limner” were created by Phillips early in his career, between 1812 and 1819. They display a shimmering palette of light and muted colors that are almost pastel. These portraits have a dreamy quality.An example from this period is “Rhoda Goodrich (Mrs. William Northrop) Bentley and Daughter” at the American Folk Art Museum, dated from 1815 to 1820. As typical of Phillips’s output, the picture only shows essential elements and is quite minimalistic. A double-portrait of mother and child, the child wears a coral necklace, a feature frequently featured in Phillips’s depictions of children.
The tradition of children wearing coral jewelry extends to the classical era. The organic gemstone was believed to protect children from illness and other evils. Coral was imported to the American market from the Mediterranean, and it was a popular adornment for children from the colonial period into the 19th century. Although the country was experiencing increasing prosperity, child mortality was high. A growing provincial middle class had the means to commission portraits, and folk artists were an affordable option. Portraits of children were an opportunity to celebrate their life and served as a memorial if they died young.
During his Kent period, around 1829 to 1838, Phillips explored rich, vibrant colors, crisp lines, and more elaborate dress. In “American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum,” Stacy C. Hollander writes that these works “are defined by strong contrasts of color, with faces emerging like jewels from dark, velvety backgrounds; heightened color in the cheeks; smooth, enameled brushwork; and a geometric, decorative treatment of the bodies.”
A Folk Masterpiece
Phillips’s masterpiece, emblematic of folk art as a whole, is “Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog,” 1830–1835, also in the American Folk Art Museum’s collection. In an exhibition label, Ms. Hollander compares Phillips’s use of large color blocks rendered with geometric precision to medieval religious art. She writes, “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.” In addition to color, the expressive facial features of the girl, who sits demurely on a bench, convey an innocence that captures the viewer’s attention as she meets their gaze.
An image of the painting was issued as a United States postal stamp in 1998. Phillips painted four portraits of individual children in brilliant red clothes with small dogs at their feet. In art history, dogs are symbolic of loyalty. The beagle in the picture, distinctive by a brown oval patch on his forehead, appears in several portraits by the artist. It is believed to have been Phillips’s own pet and may have been employed to keep young sitters still while posing.
The only Phillips double-portrait of a child in red with the same dress pattern is The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Mrs. Mayer and Daughter” from 1835 to 1840. The two figures are presented as delineated shapes composed of boldly saturated color. As in “Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog,” the child wears a coral necklace. In addition, she holds leafy sprigs reminiscent of other Phillips paintings. Alongside the shoes, these attributes amplify the red color field of her dress.
Aesthetic Connections
The connection between Ammi Phillips and the portraits of “Border Limner” and “Kent Limner” might never have been made without the brilliant investigative work of Barbara Holdridge, a publisher, and her engineer husband, Larry Holdridge. In 1958, they bought a signed Ammi Phillips painting in a Connecticut antique shop. Curious to discover information about the artist, they found a descendant of Phillips who helped them learn more about his life. Subsequently, the couple found out about an art exhibition during a summer fair in Kent that had taken place in 1924. Residents had displayed ancestral portraits by an artist who became known as “Kent Limner.”When studying books featuring the work of this unknown artist and “Border Limner,” Barbara was struck by their similarity with Philips’s pictures, particularly the repeated use of jewelry and a book throughout the oeuvre. They contacted and convinced the preeminent folk art historian Mary Black, then-director of the American Folk Art Museum, with their findings.
