Ammi Phillips (1788-1865)

PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN IN BLACK FROCK COAT AND WAISTCOAT HOLDING A NEWSPAPER ENTITLED FLAG

Oil on canvas

Massachusetts, circa 1850.

32½” X 26½” (39¼” X 32¾” overall)

Provenance:  A Sheffield, Massachusetts family; Sotheby’s, January 1988, lot #1550; a private collector

A catalogue entry states:  “This portrait bears a marked similarity in pose, style of composition and costume with the Portrait of a Man with a Book in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia (illustrated in the catalogue, p. 161, fig. 133), where it is suggested that the subject may be a member of the Bartholomew family from Sheffield, Massachusetts; based upon a close resemblance between the man’s likeness and Phillips’ painting John Morse Bartholomew.  What makes this supposition particularly intriguing, is that the present portrait was acquired in Sheffield, Massachusetts and might well be another member of the Bartholomew family.

Item 4882