Erastus Salisbury Field

Erastus Salisbury Field (May 19, 1805 in Leverett, Massachusetts – June 28, 1900 in Sunderland, Massachusetts). Come to this talk given by AHS board member, Neal Parks and learn about the noted 19th Century folk artist, Erastus Salisbury Field (1805-1900). Born and raised in nearby Leverett, MA, after a long life of creative pursuits, was laid to rest in the North Amherst Cemetery. Fields paintings are now held in museums and numerous private collections and are considered excellent examples of the naïve style of portraiture that was prevalent in rural America during the first half of the 1800s. This presentation will survey Field’s artistic growth following his brief but informative experience as a teenaged student in the atelier of a famed artist in NYC which was to profoundly influence his career as an itinerant portraitist. For several decades following, Field successfully plied his trade in the Valley and around New England. With the advent of the daguerreotype in the 1840’s, Field learned that newfangled craft, augmenting his painterly career as a portrait photographer. In his mature phase, he moved away from capturing realistic likenesses as his primary focus to painting illustrated scenes of the bible in a proto-surreal manner, along with dramatic depictions of political figures and other decidedly dream-like imagery. Following the talk, plan a visit to the Amherst History Center to view the Erastus Salisbury Field portraits of Rev. William Hunt and his wife, Caroline Phebe Dutch Hunt, who resided in Amherst in the first half of the 19th century.