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Portrait 1939.100.7
Possibly Mr. Pearce
Portrait 1939.100.7

Possibly Mr. Pearce

Dateca. 1835
Attributed to Erastus Salisbury Field (1805-1900)
OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Hadley (possibly)
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 30 x 26in. (76.2 x 66cm) and Framed: 35 x 30 1/2in.
Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Object number1939.100.7
DescriptionHalf length male figure seated slightly sideways to picture frame. Shaded greyish background. Black coat with brass buttons. Brown striped vest. Lighter brown gloves in right hand. Shirt pin black with fancy gold setting. Sits in black and red grained side chair with yellow striping. Areas of pink tones in face.

The 2 3/4-inch frame is a modern replacement, a copy of original frames found on a series of other Field portraits [ n. 1]. It is a flat board frame having raised corner blocks and quarter-round molding around the outer edgies, and it is painted black with gold-stenciled leaf designs on it.
Label TextWhen Erastus Field died in 1900 at age ninety-five, a newspaper commented that "his likenesses of people of past generations are as correct as can well be made in oil." Field's clear colors and minutely rendered costume details make his portraits among the most distinctive produced in nineteenth-century America. Given the large number that have survived, Field was also among the most sought-after portrait painters of that period. ‚
ProvenanceFound in Hadley, Mass., and purchased from Edith Gregor Halpert by Mrs. Rockefeller. Given to C. W. in 1949 by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.