Lot 944
  • 944

Attributed to Erastus Salisbury Field (1805 - 1900)

Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 USD
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Description

  • Erastus Salisbury Field
  • The Voyage of Life: Youth
  • oil on canvas
  • Height 29 in. by Width 40 1/2 in.
Painted circa 1860-1880, in the original frame (repainted).

Provenance

Arthur Liverant and Son Antiques, Colchester, Connecticut, August 26, 1988;
Mr. and Mrs. Max Beit, New London, Connecticut.

Exhibited

Springfield, Massachusetts, The Holyoke Museum, A Folk Art Pilgrimage, November 3 – December 23, 1988

Condition

Unlined; original frame and stretchers; canvas is wrinkled; old yellowing, varnish.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

In a letter on the subject the exhibition of American folk paintings on view at the Holyoke Museum from November of 1988, Mary Black—eminent scholar and former director of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center and the American Folk Art Museum—wrote the following:

“I have no reason to doubt the Erastus Salisbury Field attribution for the scene of Manhood from Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life series. The style of the painting and the details of landscape echo those seen in certain of the Taj Mahal series painted in, I think, the 1870’s. Earlier, Field borrowed from prints by Thomas Cole in his two Gardens of Eden, perhaps because he remembered that Cole has overlooked his part if the Valley in painting the Oxbow of the Connecticut in the 1840’s. So what we see here seems to be one more example of Fields’ entrepreneurship – associating himself with the academic artist closest to hand.”