Loisa Cowles
Artist
Erastus Salisbury Field
(American, 1805–1900)
Date1837
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 76.5 x 66.4 cm (30 1/8 x 26 1/8 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineEliza S. Paine Fund
Object number1975.83
Label TextThough primarily self-taught, Field began to display natural talents in portraiture during his three-month apprenticeship under Samuel Finley Breese Morse in 1824. Like other New England folk artists, he travelled around western Massachusetts and the Connecticut Valley in search of commissions. In February 1837, he created four portraits of the Cowles family of Amherst, Massachusetts, including this likeness of twenty-two-year-old Loisa Cowles. Dressed in her Sunday best, Loisa holds a prayer book, meant to convey her modest Christian upbringing and intelligent demeanor. Her face, with its degree of modeling and naturalism, contrasts with the meticulous, two-dimensional patterning of her dress. Unlike the work of artists with formal training, Field’s rendering epitomizes the flat, distinctive portraits that he offered at fair prices for America’s middle-class patrons.ProvenancePeter Marks, New York NYOn View
Not on view
