Ammi Phillips and Locust Lawn

Among the items in the Locust Lawn collection are several portraits by Ammi Phillips, the noted 19th century artist whose distinctive works graced many of the homes in the Hudson Valley, western Connecticut and western Massachusetts.

Phillips was born in Connecticut in 1788.  He is believed to have been self-taught and began his professional career around 1811. He lived for much of his adult life in Rhinebeck, New York, which is located across the Hudson River from New Paltz. 

Phillips was known as a limner. This was the name given to the best-known folk painters of 19th-century America who were nonacademic portrait painters, often itinerant, who usually worked in oils. Primarily, the limner viewed his work as a source of income. Phillips, because he worked in the border region of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, became known as the "border limner."

One can easily imagine Phillips visiting Locust Lawn and staying with the Hasbroucks as he painted portraits of young Hylah and Levi, mistress and master of the house, as well as several members of their extended family. 

The composition and style common to Phillips's work is evident in these pieces.  Unique, however, is the opportunity to view these portraits in situ, as their subjects intended they be seen.  Also unique is that the fact that many of the furnishings Phillips' incorporated into these portraits remain in the house for the public to enjoy alongside his work.