American Buffalo Painting by J. Albert Sylvia, circa 1935

Superb Ammi Phillips American Folk Art Portrait painting, circa 1840 We are proud of our acquisition of this authentic masterpiece by Ammi Phillips (1788-1865). The finely rendered portrait depicts an attractive young girl in a delightful lifelike quality. The pretty face is a refreshing change from the stern expressions of most of the paintings showing mature female or male sitters. Phillips palette is dark with a strikingly dramatic use of light to her face. The painting, on its original stretchers, is in untouched condition. The frame is period. This painting is unsigned, as are most of his works, but bares the unmistakable characteristics of a Phillips painting. Portrait of a young girl holding a book and wearing a golden whistle. From the New England estate of the renowned Folk Art Collector and scholar, John Bauer...

Martha Visser't Hooft (1906-1994) Martha Hamlin Visser't Hooft was an artist and teacher whose family was deeply involved in the arts and sciences. Her father, Chauncey Jerome Hamlin, was one of Buffalo’s most influential civic leaders and planners, and an attorney known for his activism in museums. Her mother, Emily Gray Hamlin, was a social activist with interests that extended to the arts and philosophy. Martha Visser’t Hooft studied art in Paris in the 1920s at the Académie Julian, and explored exciting new European developments, such as cubism and surrealism, Russian ballet, and modern music. In 1926 she moved to New York to study briefly at the Parsons School of Design before transferring to the John Murray Anderson School of Theater Design. She took several trips to Taos, New Mexico, meeting several prominent artists of the area, including Buffalo-born patron Mabel Dodge Luhan...