AMMI PHILLIPS | PORTRAIT OF A SEATED CHILD IN A PINK DRESS WITH A SPANIEL AND CORAL TEETHING RING

Dorothea and Dean Nelson, Spruce Creek, Pennsylvania;

Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, Important American 18th, 19th and 20th Century Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, June 2, 1983, sale 5055, lot 13;

Peter H. Tillou, Litchfield, Connecticut;

Mr. & Mrs. Andy Williams, La Quinta, California;

Skinner, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, American Furniture & Decorative Arts, March 3, 2013, sale 2640B, lot 14.

Antiques Review, (March 1987);

Leigh Rehner Jones and Shirley A. Mearns, "Ammi Phillips’s Portraits with Animals," The Hudson Valley Regional Review, 4:2 (September 1987), p. 74;

Antiques and The Arts Weekly, January 15, 1988, p. 99;

Lita Solis-Cohen, Maine Antique Digest, March 1988, p. 14-A;

David R. Allaway, My People: The Works of Ammi Phillips, (self published [https://issuu.com/n2xb/docs/ammi_phillips_-_abstract__thumbnail and https://issuu.com/n2xb/docs/ammi_phillips_-_analysis__indexed_], 2019), vol 1., pp. 20, 248, no. 797, vol 2., pp. 71, 100.

This portrait, categorized as number 797 under the ‘Late 1820’s to late 1830’s: The Children in Red Dresses’ group in Allaway’s comparative study, is cataloged as an “Unidentified Child / holding teething ring and dog.” Wearing a salmon frock with white undulating embroidery, the child holds a coral teething ring in left and the paw of the eager spaniel in right hand. The child in this portrait is perhaps one of the youngest in the entire ‘Red Dress’ group, making it difficult to resolutely assign gender. While one indication of gender being hair parting – boys being parted to the side and girls being parted in the middle – is obsolete given the thin hair of this child, most children that Phillips pairs with the spaniel are girls rather than boys. Additionally, the slightly exaggerated upturned features of the mouth, the wide-set placement of the eyes, and the small rounded shape of the nose are more inherently female attributes. The spaniel, featured in many of Phillips’ portraits, has actually been thought to be his own dog, trained to amuse the child during the mundane sitting process. It is interesting that this child, especially for being so young, has seemed to garner more affection from her canine companion than any other child rendered by Phillips. According to provenance, this girl was related to another Phillips' painting of a man resting his hand on the bible holding a quill from the 'Realistic period,' number 562, which was sold in these rooms on May 22, 2003, sale 7905, lot 765.