"He Turned Their Waters into Blood"

c. 1865/1880

Erastus Salisbury Field

Artist, American, 1805 - 1900

Dozens of light-skinned men and women gather around clusters of columns and sandstone-colored buildings that line a crimson-red river to our right in this horizontal painting. The center of the painting is dominated by a structure made up of three rows of three columns each, which hold up a flat-topped roof. A similar structure angles into the distance along the left edge of the painting. The columns of these two structures are carved with bands showing people separated by rings of vertical lines. The capitals are carved with stylized leaves. Just beyond the columns to our left, a blocky, rose-pink structure is carved with more people, seated or standing singly or in pairs. More rectangular, parchment-brown buildings extend into the distance along the water’s edge. The people gathered along the riverbank wear robes and tunics in deep blue or black, bright white, or saturated tones of cobalt blue, ruby red, or shell pink. Standing within the columns of the central structure, a crowned, bearded man wearing an emerald-green robe under a scarlet-red cloak gestures to our right, toward the red river. A woman nearby, wearing lapis blue and also crowned, watches with hands flung up as a person pours red liquid from a bucket. Most of the other people look or gesture toward the river, which winds in deep S-curves from the horizon line, which comes about two-thirds of the way up the composition, through sage-green fields, to the town. A single, white lightning bolt zigzags down from a white cloud in an otherwise navy-blue sky above.

Media Options

This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Descended in the Cooley family, Sunderland, Massachusetts, to Mrs. Esther Cooley Page.[1] (Robert Schuyler Tompkins, Sheffield, Massachusetts,) by whom sold in 1949 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift to NGA, 1964.
[1] The Cooleys were friends and neighbors of the artist when he lived in Plumtrees, Massachusetts. His studio was behind their home.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1954

  • American Primitive Painting, traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Inst. for the U.S. Information Service, Washington, 1954-1955, no. 63. First venue: Kunstmuseum, Lucerne, Switzerland.

1961

  • 101 Masterpieces of American Primitive Painting from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, traveling exh. by the Amer. Federation of Arts, New York, 1961-1964, no. 77, color repro. First venue: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.

1966

  • The Folk Artist in the City: Erastus Salisbury Field in New York, Museum of Early American Folk Arts (now MAFA), New York, 1966, no. 24.

1967

  • Fifty Masterpieces of American Primitive Painting from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, 1967, no cat.

1968

  • American Naive Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries: 111 Masterpieces from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, traveling exh. by Amer. Fed. of Arts, N.Y., 1968-1970, no. 105, repro. First venue: Grand Palais, Paris.

1970

  • American Naive Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Masterpieces from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, organized by the Amer. Fed. of Arts, N.Y., and Mainichi News., Nihobashi Mitsukoshi, Tokyo, 1970, no cat.

1971

  • Twenty-five Folk Artists: Their Lives and Work, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1971, no cat.

1972

  • The Hand and the Spirit: Religious Art in America, 1700-1900, traveling exhibition, 1972-1973, no. 54. (cat. by Jane Dillenberger and Joshua Taylor). First venue: University Art Museum, Berkeley, California.

1974

  • American Narrative Painting, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1974, no. 22.

1978

  • The American Folk Art Tradition: Paintings from the Garbisch Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978.

1984

  • Erastus Salisbury Field: 1805-1900, traveling exhibition, 1984-1985, 48, 110, no. 84. (cat. by Mary C. Black). First venue: Museum of Fine arts, Springfield, Massachusetts.

1985

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Exh. cat. Traveling exh. by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1985-1987, no. 29, color repro. First venue: Museum of American Folk Art, New York.

1988

  • La Nascita di Una Nazione: Pittori americani dalla National Gallery of Art di Washington 1730-1880, Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna; Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna di Ca'Pesaro, Venice, 1988-1989, no. 29, repro.

1990

  • Egypt, The Sources and the Legacy: Ancient Egyptian and Egyptian Revival Objects, Sarah Lawrence College Art Gallery, Bronxville, New York, 1990, no. 8.

Bibliography

1963

  • French, Reginald F., and Agnes M. Dods. "Erastus Salisbury Field, 1805-1900." Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin 28 (October 1963): 128, no. 245 (includes their "Checklist of Paintings attributed to Erastus S. Field").

1966

  • Gerdts, William H. "Egyptian Motifs in 19th-century American Painting and Sculpture." Antiques 90 (October 1966): 499, 501.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 60, repro.

1972

  • Rozwenc, Edwin C. The Making of American Society. Boston, 1972: 488-489.

1974

  • Neumeyer, Alfred. Geschichte der Amerikanischen Malerei. Munich, 1974: 143, color pl. 16.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 158, repro.

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 10, repro.

1981

  • Mann, Donna. "American Naive Paintings in the National Gallery of Art." 26th Annual Washington Antiques Show Catalogue (January 1981): 42.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 12, repro.

1992

  • Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 135-138, color repro. 137.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 182, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20188654

You may be interested in

Loading Results