Ammi Phillips (1788-1865)

SOLD

Lived/worked mostly in New York and Connecticut
Portrait of George Washington Beckwith
Unsigned, ca. 1840-1845
Oil on canvas
33 1/2” x 27 1/2”
Condition: Great condition, one minor patch on verso, very minor scattered in-painting (less than 1%) visible under ultra-violet light. In a period carved, gilt frame.
Provenance: Robert E. Schmidt, New York; Doyle Auctions; Private Collection, Hudson, NY
Phillips painted the Beckwith family on many occasions. Colonel Nathan Sutherland Beckwith (1778-1865) and his wife Betsey (neé Elizabeth Gale) of Duchess County, New York around 1817, their son George Washington Beckwith (1814-1881) with his dog around 1830, and it is believed again in this painting around 1840. It is likely that Beckwith’s son Asa (1864-1928), inherited the painting when he inherited his father’s house and farm upon his father’s death, in 1881, where he remained carrying on his father’s business until his death, never marrying. Originally from Connecticut, Colonel Sutherland Beckwith settled his family in Duchess County, New York after his service in the Revolutionary War where he purchased a large tract of land and began farming. Their son George Washington Beckwith followed in his father’s footsteps and had a large farm in Standford, Duchess County, and was a farmer who cultivated groves of ornamental and fruit trees and had dairying interests as well.