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The image depicts a woman from the waist up, seated and holding a piece of lacework. She faces slightly to her right, with a direct gaze. Her facial features include deep-set eyes, a pronounced nose, and slightly pursed lips. She wears a white cap with lace edges and an olive-green dress with long sleeves. A white shawl drapes over her dress and is tied into a bow at the front. She wears a string of pearls around her neck. Beside her is a table with a decorative cloth featuring floral motifs. The background is a plain, muted tone.
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The image depicts a woman from the waist up, seated and holding a piece of lacework. She faces slightly to her right, with a direct gaze. Her facial features include deep-set eyes, a pronounced nose, and slightly pursed lips. She wears a white cap with lace edges and an olive-green dress with long sleeves. A white shawl drapes over her dress and is tied into a bow at the front. She wears a string of pearls around her neck. Beside her is a table with a decorative cloth featuring floral motifs. The background is a plain, muted tone.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Alsa Slade

Ammi Phillips

Date
1816
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 102 x 83.8 cm (40 3/16 x 33 in.) framed: 107.9 x 91.4 x 3.4 cm (42 1/2 x 36 x 1 5/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1953.5.53
Credit line
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
Time span
1801 to 1825
Department
CAB
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • American
  • female
  • portrait
  • American Naive Paintings
  • Naive
  • Slade, Alsa
Provenance

Recorded as from New York State. Possibly once located in the Red, White, and Blue House built by Benjamin Slade, son of Joseph and Alsa Slade, in Waterford, New York.[1] Found in Lansingburgh (now part of Troy), New York, by (Frederick Fuessenich, Litchfield, Connecticut); sold 1952 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift 1953 to NGA. [1] Patty Marshall, Slade descendant, undated letter (reply dated 25 March 1968), in NGA curatorial files.

Inscription

on reverse (no longer visible, photograph in object file [1953.5.53] in NGA curatorial records): ALCE SLADE AGED 49 YEARS AD 1816

NGA object ID 42456. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.