This painting by Erastus Salisbury Field is the third version of the subject to be recorded. The other two, both also titled The Garden of Eden, are among the most popular and frequently published works by Field. They are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (see Mary Black, Erastus Salisbury Field: 1805-1900 [1984], pp. 39, fig. 42, 109, no. 76) and The Shelburne Museum, Vermont (see Black, op. cit., pp. 85, pl. 25, 109, no. 77 illus. in color).

Just as the Boston and Shelburne pictures vary from one another in their arrangement, so does this version vary again from the other two. Mrs. Black dates the Boston and Shelburne pictures to about 1860, and states that they were painted in Plumtrees (Sunderland), in Western Massachusetts, and it would seem likely that this picture was also painted at the same time and place. With the two other versions of the subject, it ranks among the artist's most delightful works.

Recorded: Letter from Mary Black, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, May 26, 1985

Provenance: Descended in a family in Windham County, Connecticut, until 1985