2 Oil Portraits, Attrib. Ammi Phillips (1788-1865)

Two early portraits, one of a man and the other of a woman, attributed to American artist Ammi Phillips. Unsigned, oil on canvas, as is, condition commensurate with age.Ammi Phillips was born in Colebrook, Connecticut and began painting portraits of western Massachusetts subjects in about 1811. After marrying, he briefly lived in Troy before settling in Rhinebeck, NY. While there, Phillips painted likenesses on both sides of the New York/New England border. After his first wife's death, Phillips remarried, lived for a time in Amenia, New York, and then settled in 1836 in Kent and Sharon, Connecticut. Phillips returned to Amenia in about 1838, lived in Northeast, New York for a decade, and died in Curtisville, New York. His more than six hundred extant likenesses span an artistic career of nearly sixty years.