Portrait of Catharina Van Keuren

This detailed rendering of Catharina Van Keuren was painted by Ammi Phillips, a talented itinerant artist from Connecticut who secured commissions in the towns of western Connecticut, western Massachusetts, and western New York during the first half of the 19th century. Phillips was a self-taught artist who began painting in 1811, and his portraits are wonderful records of popular tastes and fashions in America at the time. Notice how the elegant Empire-style dress donned by Catherina Van Keuren differs dramatically from the costume worn by Mary Christopher Van Doorn Couch in the adjacent portrait, also painted by Phillips ten years later in 1829.