Attributed to Ammi Phillips (Kent, Litchfield County, Connecticut area, 1788-1865) Portrait of Augusta Maria Foster, c. 1836.

Description:

Attributed to Ammi Phillips (Kent, Litchfield County, Connecticut area, 1788-1865)

Portrait of Augusta Maria Foster, c. 1836. Unsigned. Oil on canvas, 33 1/2 in. x 27 3/4 in., sight, framed. Condition: Laid down on Masonite, some minor inpainting, later frame.

Provenance: Family descent to the consignor. A genealogical record states that Augusta Maria Foster was born in 1820 to Ebenezer Foster and Frances (Sprague) Foster. Augusta married George Raymond on May 14, 1839, and lived in Southeast, New York. She died sometime after 1869. Other members of the Raymond family had their portraits painted in Kent, Litchfield County, Connecticut, also in 1836. See p. 70 in the "Checklist of Portrait Paintings Signed by and Attributed to Ammi Phillips," compiled by Howard P. Fertig in the publication Revisiting Ammi Phillips: Fifty Years of American Portraiture by Stacy C. Hollander, Curator and and Howard Fertig Research Curator with an essay by Mary Black in association with Barbara and Larry Holdridge, Museum of American Folk Art, New York, New York, 1994.

This painting represents Ammi Phillips's Kent Period, 1829-1838, when he embarked on a new style of portraiture during which he seemed more familiar with his subjects and also more formulaic in his approach. In her pose, Augusta Maria epitomizes the gracefulness that characterizes his work at this time, which resulted in a group of very attractive portraits. "By 1836 he had learned that a smooth, dark background and a dark dress could be painted easiest if he followed a pattern in setting the figures." (Hollander and Fertig, pp. 22, 23).

Note: Illustrated here, but not offered for sale, is Augusta Maria Foster's sampler that she accomplished in 1828, at eight years of age; also available for viewing is a mid-1860s family photograph showing Augusta Maria in her mid-forties, with four generations of her family.
Estimate $40,000-60,000

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