Folk Art Paintings

On view in the Focus Gallery this summer is a group of seven 19th-century American folk art paintings by self-taught artists such as Samuel P. Howes and Ammi Phillips. These stylistically similar portraits are all painted in oil and depict members of the upper and upper-middle class from the Northeastern region of the United States, including Matthew Vassar and his wife Catherine Valentine Vassar as well as Helen Cornell Manney. The paintings are typical of portraits made by itinerant painters, away from urban centers, who favored strong colors, broad direct application of paint, sharply defined forms, generalized light, overall flatness and linearity, and a skewed scale and proportion, all adding to the charm of the compositions. This mini-exhibition is designed to complement the concurrent exhibition Faces and Figures in Self-Taught Art on view in the temporary exhibition galleries.