Portrait of The Smith Family

Dateca. 1865

Attributed to Erastus Salisbury Field (1805-1900)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, North Amherst

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 36" x 47" (91.4 cm. x 119.4 cm.) and Framed: 40 1/8" x 51 3/16"

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Carl C. Mullen

Object number1971.100.6

DescriptionOil portrait of family in interior setting. Walls grey-greenish, behind the sitters are two windows through which one may see green trees. Windows hung with bright pink curtains with white lace trim (lace picked out with white oil impasto), and red tassels with gold ties. The family is standing on a carpet with alternating stripes in a floral pattern. Standing at the far left is the young son in olive green jacket and string tie. Beside him seated on a grey empire sofa is his mother in long-sleeved black dress with white lace collar. On other side of sofa is oldest daughter. She wears a long- sleeved dress, black with white lace collar. She holds a rolled up piece of paper in her left hand on her lap. Next, standing is a young woman in black dress with long billowing sleeves and buttons decorating the front of her dress, white lace collar with a tiny bow on front of it, holding one edge of a sheet of music. A slightly taller young woman stands next to her wearing a blue short -sleeve dress with the neckline slightly off the shoulder. She wears a round locket on a chain. Her left hand rests lightly on the shoulder of her sister who is identically dressed in the same blue short-sleeve dress and locket on a chain. She is holding on to the other edge of sheet music. Next to the three standing sisters is a stout older man seated. He wears a long black frock coat, black pants and vest with bow tie on a white shirt front, and black boots. Standing to the far right of the viewer is the youngest daughter with her right elbow on the back of her father's chair. She is wearing a pink sort sleeve dress, and a double strand of beads adorns her neck. All of the figures seem rigid and staring, and totally detached from each other.
Label TextWhen the camera was first introduced to America in 1839 by Field's former teacher, Samuel F. B. Morse, some portrait painters attempted to stay in business by using daguerreotypes as the basis for their compositions. While patrons found this method a welcome alternative to tedious sittings, to modern eyes the results were seldom satisfactory. The distressing effect that painting from photographs had on Erastus Salisbury Field's style is best appreciated by comparing his mechanical rendering of the family of WilliamSmith with the truly masterful life-sized portrait of the family of Joseph Moore, done twenty years earlier. In the Smith picture the colorful parlor furnishings document middle-class Victorian taste, but the slickly painted frozen figures are incorrectly proportioned, poorly integrated, and characterless. Field was an old acquaintance of the Smith family, since he had painted portraits of William Henry and his wife fifteen years earlier. He lived with the family for several months in 1865, and the group portrait was probably painted during that time. The sitters are, from left to right, Seth (1857-1928), Catherine (Mrs. William Henry Smith) (1810-1899), Mary Jane (grandmother of the donor) (1833-1890), Maria Frances (1836-1917), Sarah (1844-1912), Delia (1842-1916), William Henry Smith (1809 -1899), and Harriet (1849-1928).
MarkingsNone found
ProvenanceDescended in the family to the donor, Mrs. Carl C. Mullen, great-granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Smith.