Erastus Salisbury Field

Largely self-taught, Erastus Salisbury Field briefly studied with one of early-nineteenth-century America’s most prominent academic artists, Samuel F. B. Morse. Field began his artistic career in 1826 in his native Connecticut River Valley working as an itinerant portrait painter, later expanding his subject matter to include landscapes and events in American history. From 1841 he lived mainly in New York, advertising himself as a daguerreotypist and seeking commissions for portraits in this early photographic medium. He continued to make daguerreotypes throughout the remainder of his life. For paintings, however, Field favored literary and biblical subjects over portraiture starting in about 1860.