Painted by Ammi Phillips
Oil on canvas
unframed 26.5 x 22 in. (67.3 x 55.9 cm.)
framed, heavily gilded, 34 x 30 in. (86.4 x 76.2 cm.).

Black and white photograph of Hylah Bevier Hasbrouck’s three-quarter length portrait painting by Ammi Phillips. Hylah is wearing a high tortoiseshell comb, a black empire dress, a ruffled lace collar and a white shawl with a purple-flowered border around her arms. A side table made by John Banks, which is in the collection, can be seen in the bottom left corner of the portrait.

“Ammi Phillips began his professional career around 1811. He traveled extensively in the New York - Massachusetts - Connecticut border area, and because of this, became known as “Border Limner”. He married Laura Brockway in 1813 and the couple moved to Troy, New York. At some point, they moved to Rhinebeck where his wife died in 1830. He remarried shortly after. Around 1829, he started painting in a new style. The works from this period were from his “Kent Period”, named thus because that was the town in Connecticut where the paintings first surfaced. He probably did the paintings in New York’s Duchess County. He returned to western Massachusetts in 1860 where he died five years later, his occupation was listed as a “portrait painter”.
~Ammi Phillips Biography (1788-1865)