Images(2)

Possibly Mrs. 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 1/4in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1939.100.8

DescriptionOil portrait of woman, viewed half-length seated. Greyish background. Dress brownish red with long leg-o-mutton sleeves. Sheer white collar is very large and covers shoulders in triangular form with embroidered simple raised design and has delicate eyelet work on borders. White gauffered cap with pink flowers around hair. White wide embroidered belt with brass buckle (composed of two architectural columns). Pin at chest matches that of husband and her oblong dangling earrings match pin. Hair brown, parted in center with small sausage curls on either side of forehead. Long black ribbon or watch chain around neck with design in grey and small gold cross half-way down it. Gold slide resting on belt. Holds book in right hand.

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 nearly 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 the 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.