Erastus Salisbury Field (1805-1900)

painted circa 1830

The Field Family

My grandfather, Zechariah Field, was born in Yorkshire, England and immigrated to Boston in 1629.  His grandfather John Field was reported to be a "distinguished astronomer."  Zechariah Field's farm was locatd in what is now a rather run-down neighborhood of Boston and a subway stop, Field's Corner.  Late in his life, Zechariah settled in the Connecticut River Valley in western Massachusetts.  The next six generations of Fields lived in several small hill towns north of Amherst, concentrating in Leverett after 1745.

Erastus and Salome Field of Leverett had nine children, among them Erastus Salisbury Field, born in 1805.  The portrait is of his brother Phineas, born 1809.  Their brother Stillman (born 1802) was my great-great grandfather and it is through his line that the portrait has passed to me. 

Most of the Fields were farmers.  Phineas raised tobacco leaves used for wrapping cigars.  Others owned Field's Tavern (now a private house) or were school masters.  One descendant was Cyrus Field, who laid the first transatlantic cable.  I have a souvenir section of that cable. Other descendants were Marshall Field who established the Chicago department store; Eugene Field, children's poet, famous for "Wynken, Blinken and Nod;" and Rachel Field, author of "All This and Heaven, Too" which was made into a movie in 1940, starring Bette Davis.

The only formal art training that Erastus Salisbury Field recieved was 3 months' study with Samuel F. B. Morse  in New York City.  It is ironic that it was Morse who promoted the daguerreotype in this country, which put itinerant portrait painters like Field out of business.  As a result, he switched to painting historical and Biblical themes.  His more noted work, the invention of the telegraph, made possible the success of Cyrus Field.

Field painted his portraits of people living in the Connecticut Valley.  The highest price he recorded receiving was $5.  The portrait of his brother Phineas was done in 1831.  That and other family portraits descended to Stillman's daughter, my grandfather's great aunt Ellen Field.  On her death, they were part of a railroad freight car load of possessions sent to my maternal grandparents.  My mother inherited "Phineas" and willed it to me.

In my lifetime, the portrait of Phineas has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of American Folk Art, Williamsburg, the Springfield, Massachusetts, Fine Arts Museum and the McNay Art Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

Mary Black's catalogue of Field's work, Erastus Salisbury Field: 1805-1900 (Springfield Museum of Art, 1984), is a comprehensive study of his life and career.  She considers "Phineas" to be "one of his best portrayals" and "a fine, sure painting."

Douglas Bowen, May, 2006