Woman with a Green Book (Louisa Gallond Cook)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
88.9 × 74.3 cm (35 × 29 1/4 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
61158
Art Historical Context
In the intimate portrait *Woman with a Green BookLouisa Gallond Cook, painted in 1838 by Erastus Salisbury Field, we encounter a poised figure emblematic of early 19th-century American life. Field, a selfught itinerant artist from Massachusetts (1805–1900), his subject—likely a family member or local notable—holding a green-bound book, symbolizing education and refinement amid the young republic's growing middle class. The oil-on-canvas work, measuring 35 × 29¼ inches, now resides in the Art Institute of Chicago's Arts of the Americas collection. Field's folk art style shines through in its n...
About the Artist
Erastus Salisbury Field · 1805–1900
1805–1900