Cornelius Allerton

Notes from the museum

As the wealth and population of western New England increased, individuals wished to record their success by preserving their own or their family members' likenesses for posterity. With this increased demand, talented sign painters such as Ammi Phillips saw new opportunities. Phillips taught himself to be a limner—a painter of portraits. By 1811 he had learned painting techniques from other Connecticut limners, who executed full-length, three-quarter, and bust portraits on canvas, wood, and glass. Phillips began to use conventional poses adopted from European prints and became one of the most successful portraitists of the middle and upper classes in rural New England, plying his trade in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. Here Phillips depicted Dr. Cornelius Allerton seated in a painted chair against a somber, gray background. Although the sitter's face is relatively unmodeled, the artist's careful rendering of detail captures a sense of his individuality. The inclusion of a volume of Parr's Medical Dictionary conveys Allerton's profession, while a tiny horse in the distance may suggest his financial status. Itinerant painters such as Phillips were often commissioned to portray several members of a family; in this case, Phillips also completed portraits of Allerton's mother (1946.395) and mother-in-law (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford). This painting was given

Text: Art Institute of Chicago (open access). Our full story for this work is coming soon.

Slow Look

1. The whole picture Let your eyes wander. Where do they want to rest?
2. The light Find the brightest spot. What is it showing you?
3. The edges Look at what is half cut off at the borders.
4. One small detail Choose one tiny thing and stay with it for a while.
5. The whole picture again Step back. Has it changed for you?

About Ammi Phillips

Ammi Phillips was a prolific American itinerant portrait painter active from the mid 1810s to the early 1860s in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. His artwork is identified as folk art, primitive art, provincial art, and itinerant art without consensus among scholars, pointing to the enigmatic nature of his work and life. He is attributed to over eight hundred paintings, although only eleven are signed.

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