59
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JAMES A. PORTER (1905 - 1970)
Woman Reading
.
Oil on cotton canvas, 1930. 508x610 mm; 20x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower right.
Provenance: the artist; Dorothy Porter Wesley; Constance Porter Uzelac, thence by descent to the
current owner.
Exhibited:
The Art of the Negro
, sponsored by the Harmon Foundation, circulated by the College Art
Association,April 15 - May 4, 1935;
James A. Porter,Artist and Art Historian:The Memory of the Legacy
,
Howard University Gallery of Art, Howard University,Washington, DC, October 15, 1992 - February
9, 1993; American Ambassador to the United Nations, Geneva Switzerland, as part of the Art in
Embassies Program, United States Department of State, 1996 - 2000, with the label on the verso.
Illustrated:
James A. Porter,Artist and Art Historian:The Memory of the Legacy
, Howard University, p. 128:
James A. Porter, 1905 -1970, From Me toYou: theWorks of James A. Porter
, G.R. N’Namdi Gallery, p. 104.
This elegant interior study is an important and well-known example of Porter’s early modern
painting.
Woman Reading
shows the influence of Porter’s study of Post-Impressionism, particularly
Pierre Bonnard and ÉdouardVuillard. James A. Porter rose to prominence and widely exhibited his
work in the early 1930s - including at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the
Museum of Modern Art, the Baltimore Museum, and the Harmon Foundation, NewYork. At the
Harmon Foundation, his
Woman Holding a Jug
, 1930, reproduced on the cover of its 1933 exhibition
catalogue, won the Schomburg portrait prize, and its popular and critical acclaim brought Porter
national recognition.After graduating from Howard University in 1927, Porter established his career
as an artist while teaching art at the University.
[20,000/30,000]
