Kate Field

The are two similar paintings of Kate Field known to exist.  One a very large 5’x6′ painting, with a footstool is currently whereabouts unknown.  The second smaller painting doesn’t have a footstool shown in the work, and is in the Boston Public Library.

The very large portrait, with a footstool, was first shown in the NY Academy of Design show in 1881. A portion of the review of that portrait whose location is presently unknown, is listed below.  There is some discussion as to how to read the date on the second smaller portrait, as possibly 1887, but since we have the confirmed  exhibition date of the large portrait as 1881, that is the date we are listing for its creation, and are recognizing that Millet must have been just a bit proud of his work and dated it with a flourish.

In 1999, the Guild of Boston Artist’s held a exhibition of Millet paintings and the Kate Field painting was shown as item number 8.  The following commentary attached to the painting gives the viewer a better understanding of the relationship between the friends, and Frank’s objectives when he introduced the painting to the public.

“Mary Katherine Keemie Field was a writer and journalist who was born in St. Louis on October 1, 1838.  Miss Field offered her London home to the Millet’s for their honeymoon, and they named their first daughter after the hostess in whose home the child was probably conceived.  Frank painted this [Kate Field] portrait in the spring of 1881, and he exhibited it that year at the National Academy of Design where George Maynard’s portrait of Frank was also shown.  According to one newspaper report on the [Field] portrait, the critics got “into a towering passion over it,” as Frank’s friends had warned him they would.  “They can’t do that without mentioning me,” said Frank, quietly, “and they’ve never done that yet.”  And so it was, that every time the critics mentioned the painting, they also mentioned Frank, and he “suddenly became the best known artist in town…”                                 –“The Easel Paintings of Francis Davis Millet,” The Guild of Boston Artists, April 6-24, 1999.

The second, smaller or 3/4 length portrait, of Kate Field seems generally identical in that she is also seated against the yellow-green cushions, before a yellow-green background; but missing the footstool reported in the reviews of the larger painting.  She is turning to the left, wearing a black dress and holds s few small flowers. There is a question as to whether the Boston Library version is “cut down” from the original larger painting or a second smaller painting, and further research needs to be completed.

Ms. Field was an “early feminist” and dear friend of both Lily and Frank Millet.  They named their daughter, Kate, after her.  Ms. Field was a writer for the Nation magazine, and it is in 1881 the Nation provided the most comprehensive account of the large portrait. The information below comes from the research of scholar Gina M. D’Angelo. The full citation to her dissertation is given at the end of this entry:

“The lady is seated sidewise on a low sofa, her feet resting upon a hassock at the left, so that the figure is nearly in profile; the head being turned to the observer and supported lightly by the right arm, which rests upon an upright cushion, while the left arm reclines decorously in the lap. The canvas is five feet high by six feet long. The colors are old-gold, black, and cardinal, the first blazing from the plush upholstery, a brocade background, and a brass pot containing some peacock feathers which balances the ottoman, and the other two contrasting vigorously in the sitter’s dress, the train of which is swept round in front with the double object of exposing its richness and showing the brazen vessel it could not but partly conceal if more naturally disposed. The dress is high-necked and sleeveless, with a black lace fichu which falls over the shoulder a little way and yellow gloves of many buttons complete the costume . .  . the tiny slippered feet and cardinal stockings peep coquettishly from beneath the dress.” See Nation, March 31, 1881, p. 229, quoted in Gina M. D’Angelo:  Francis Davis Millet:  The Early Years of  ‘A Cosmopolitan Yankee,’ 1846-1884.  Ph.D. diss., City University of New York 2004, p. 215.

The link below is to the smaller 3/4 length portrait, that does not show the footstool. It is now in the Fine Arts Collection of the Boston Public Library.

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:n8710p79c