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CHARLES ETHAN PORTER (1847 - 1923)
Untitled (Peonies in a Blue Vase)
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Oil on canvas, circa 1881-84. 460x355 mm; 18x14 inches. Signed in oil, lower right.
Provenance: private collection, Paris; private Massachusetts collection.
This bright and pretty floral study by Charles Ethan Porter was made during or shortly after his
Paris period.Around 1881, after raising $1,000 from auctioning his paintings, Porter moved to Paris.
There, Porter enrolled at the École Nationale Superiéure des Arts Décoratifs before studying at the
Académie Julian. Like many American painters, his still life paintings were infused with a realism
greatly influenced by Henri Fantin-Latour. Porter unsuccessfully attempted to show his work in
the Salon and returned to Connecticut in 1884.
This painting shows the immediate influence of Fantin-Latour on Porter. Like his
Still Life of Flowers
,
1882-83, according to Hildegard Cummings, Porter learned from Fantin-Latour how to achieve
realism with more painterly rather than detailed strokes, and to use lighter and softer colors against
warmer and less dark backgrounds. The loaded brushstrokes in the petals, the warm sienna
background and the boldly impastoed highlight on the blue vase in this canvas all are lessons learned
while in Paris. Cummings pp. 63-64.
[12,000/18,000]