Henrietta Dorr

A young girl stands quietly against a plain, unshaded backdrop, dressed in a pale blue gown trimmed with a white lace collar. She wears a green headpiece and holds a cluster of red flowers in her hands, her figure rendered simply and directly. This portrait, titled Henrietta Dorr, was painted in 1814 in oil and is held today at the Princeton Art Museum. The piece entered the museum's collection as a gift from Edward Duff Balken, a member of the Class of 1897. Ammi Phillips, an American painter who lived from 1788 to 1865, created the work with a plain style that leaves the sitter as the clear focus. Worth noticing is the contrast between the softness of her lace collar and the deep red of the flowers she grips firmly in her small hands.