Image scanned and/or photographed, then color-corrected by Pat Cagney.

Nancy Hungerford

Artist Ammi Phillips (American, 1788-1865)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1838

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 32 15/16 x 27 7/16 in. (83.7 x 69.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 39 1/8 x 33 11/16 x 2 in. (99.4 x 85.6 x 5.1 cm)

Credit LineGift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Object number74.6.13

Collections

American Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 209

DescriptionOil on canvas painting portrait of Nancy Hungerford. The subject sitts with her right arm resting on a table edge, next to a book. She rests another book in her lap, using her left hand index finger to hold the page, as if keeping place while she posed.

Label TextAmmi Phillips American, 1788—1865 Nancy Hungerford, ca. 1838 Oil on canvas Ammi Phillips worked as an itinerant portraitist traveling throughout rural communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. Though he was likely self-taught, he developed a sophisticated portrait style informed by encounters with fellow artists and his own studies. The formal simplicity of Phillips’s straightforward style offered a charming vision of his subjects, such as this confident young woman who appears momentarily distracted from her books. Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch 74.6.13 ProvenanceGeorge Arons & Bros., Inc., September 2, 1964; Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Cambridge, Md., 1964-1974; Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch to the Chrysler Museum of Art, 1974. Exhibition History"Ammi Phillips: Portrait Painter, 1788-1865," Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY, October 14 - December 1, 1968; Albany Institute of History and Art, Dec. 9, 1968 - January 7, 1969. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "Face to Face: M. W. Hopkins and Noah North," Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, Mass., September 11, 1988 - January 15, 1989; The Strong Museum, Rochester, NY, February 24 - April 10, 1989. "Democratic Designs: American Folk Paintings from the Chrysler Museum," Willoughby-Baylor House, Norfolk, VA, August 16, 2014 - April 5, 2015.Published ReferencesIntroduction by Mary Black, catalog by Barbara C. and Lawrence B. Holdridge, _Ammi Phillips: Portrait Painter, 1788-1865_, exh. cat., Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY, 1969, 51, no. 226. Dennis R. Anderson, "The Gift of American Naïve Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch," _Chrysler Museum Bulletin_ 4 (May 1975), interior page 3. Foreword by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., preface by Clifford W. Schaefer, and introduction by Dennis R. Anderson, _48 Masterpieces from the Collection of Edgar William & Bernice Chrysler Garbisch_ (Norfolk, Va.: The Chrysler Museum, 1975), 51. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 48.