Erastus Salisbury Field was born in Leverett, Massachusetts, in 1805. He and his twin sister, Salome, were named after their parents. Field early demonstrated an artistic talent, and in 1824, at the age of nineteen, he apprenticed in the New York City studio of Samuel F. B. Morse until the sudden death of Morse's young wife in 1825, only three months after Field's arrival. Field returned to Leverett, starting a pattern of patronship among relatives and friends that was to spread throughout western Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Vermont.
In 1831 he married Phebe Gilmur in Ware, Massachusetts—where he later painted Joseph Moore and his family—and a year later their daughter, Henrietta, was born. He continued traveling, as far south as Hartford, New Haven, and New Canaan, Connecticut. Field is considered to have been at the height of his artistic abilities during this period in the 1830s, when his paintings are characterized by quick brushstrokes, a halo effect around the sitter, and modeling achieved through dabs of color. Although he relied on conventions that allowed his to work quickly, the portraits are personal and incisive studies. In 1841 he returned to New York, accompanied by his family. They resided in Greenwich Village, first on Carmine Street and later on Bank Street, and Field is listed in the city directories as a portrait painter until 1843, when he is listed simply as an artist. About the same time, he introduced landscape painting into his repertoire. Field may also have learned the new art of taking daguerreotypes during his second New York sojourn. After his return to New England in 1849, he began using daguerreotypes as the basis for painted portraits, sometimes composite compositions from several photographic sources.
Phebe died in 1859, and Field and his daughter moved to Plumtrees, near Leverett. It was here that he built a painting studio and started the series of religious and historical paintings that were to be his major occupation for his remaining years. A staunch abolitionist, Field painted biblical scenes of the Hebrews fleeing slavery in Egypt that were undoubtedly intended to convey his objection to slavery in the United States. In 1888 Field completed "The Historical Monument to the American Republic," a monumental allegorical representation of major chapters and figures in American history, with an emphasis on the Civil War. Shortly before his death in 1900 at the age of ninety-five, Field was remembered as the oldest citizen of Franklin County and an "all-around painter of the old school....His likenesses of people of past generations are nearly correct as can well be made in oil."
Stacy C. Hollander, "Erastus Salisbury Field (1805–1900)," in American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 398.
