Portrait of a Woman with a Shawl

About this artwork

Erastus Salisbury Field painted this portrait while working as a traveling portrait painter, fulfilling commissions around the Connecticut River valley. Portrait of a Woman with a Shawl is typical of Field’s plain-style portraits, with simplified forms and few shadows. Such portraits contrast with his later dreamscapes and historical and biblical scenes, which are often rich in fantastic and humorous details.

Art Historical Context

Erastus Salisbury Field created *Portrait of a Woman with a Shawl* while working as a traveling portrait painter in the Connecticut River valley between 1825 and 1850. During this period, itinerant artists like Field traveled from town to town, offering affordable likenesses to middle-class families who sought to capture their images before the rise of photography. This waist-length painting reflects the practical demands of his early career, when speed and accessibility mattered as much as detail. Field’s plain-style approach is evident in the simplified forms and minimal shadows, giving the work a direct, unadorned quality that feels both intimate and straightforward. These early portraits stand in contrast to his later, more imaginative dreamscapes and biblical scenes filled with fantastic details. The painting now resides in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a gift that helps preserve a record of 19th-century American life and artistic practice.

About the Artist

Erastus Salisbury Field · 1805–1900

1805–1900