Woman Holding a Bookc. 1835
Erastus Salisbury Field painted this in about 1835, aged 30. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. More about this work
About this work
The image shows a woman portrait from the waist up. She is seated upright, holding a book in her left hand. She has blue eyes, dark brown hair styled with rolls and a braided crown, and wears elegant 19th-century clothing with a lace collar, a blue-gray garment, and gold earrings. The background is plain, and she is seated on a wooden chair.
Description from the National Gallery of Art.
Erastus Salisbury Field painted this in about 1835, aged 30. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The National Gallery of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1980.62.7
- Credit
- Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Type
- Painting
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
