Ammi Phillips, a native of Colebrook, Connecticut, is now considered one of America’s premier nineteenth-century folk painters. However, for several decades after his death his identity was unknown. Phillips, like many folk artists, did not sign many of his works. For years he was referred to as the Kent Limner or Border Limner, for the regions he worked in that encompassed northwestern Connecticut and into Massachusetts and New York. The discovery of a signed portrait in 1958 revealed his identity and led to the attribution of about 500 paintings. This portrait probably dates from the early 1820s, when Phillips was modeling faces with an uncompromising realism. His work of this period was also characterized by his sitters’ dark clothes and backgrounds highlighted with a few striking decorations, such as the fancy gauze bonnet that so smartly sets off Mrs. Hickok’s sharp features and earnest gaze. He painted at least two other women wearing the same bonnet. His work was featured on a United States postage stamp in 1998.

Portrait of Katherine Salisbury Newkirk Hickok by Ammi Phillips (American) - Oil on canvas / c. 1825 - Florence Griswold Museum (Old Lyme, Connecticut) #womeninart #portrait #oilpainting #portraitofawoman #FlorenceGriswoldMuseum #AmmiPhillips #AmericanArt #womensart #AmericanArtist #LymeArtColony