2½  col wadsworth.apples…

Charles Ethan Porter, “Apples on the Ground,” circa 1878, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Hartford, Conn., gift of Dorothy Clark Archibald. Courtesy New Britain Museum of American Art.

1½ col chrysanthemums…

Charles Ethan Porter, “Chrysanthemums,” 1888, collection of Charlynn and Warren Goins. Courtesy New Britain Museum of American Art.

 

2 cuts sent e-m 4-30

MUST RUN 5/2

CHARLES ETHAN PORTER ON VIEW AT STUDIO MUSEUM HARLEM w/2 cuts

avv/gs set 4/23 #736691

NEW YORK CITY — Celebrated by his contemporaries as one of the most skilled still life painters, Charles Ethan Porter (1847/49–1923) is best known for his stylistic range, which merges meticulous realism and rich colors with fluid brushwork and sophisticated spatial effects. The Studio Museum in Harlem presents “Charles Ethan Porter: African American Master of Still Life,” on view through June 2.

This traveling exhibition, organized by New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Conn., and curated by Hildegard Cummings, is the first museum exhibition of works by the artist.

Presenting more than 40 of Porter’s paintings of flowers, insects, fruit, landscapes and portraits, this landmark exhibition and it’s accompanying catalog introduce audiences to Porter’s timeless skills. Through his rich palettes and meticulous attention to detail, Porter’s paintings can be seen as methodical and sometimes theatrical studies of his immediate world. His native state of Connecticut proved his most powerful muse, from his mother’s lustrous garden to the expansive fields and woodlands. Porter’s fascination with nature, vegetation and topography provided endless in inspiration throughout his career.

The exhibition will travel to the North Carolina Central University Art Museum in Durham from August 3 to October 7.

Porter was born in the late 1840s in Rockville, Conn. In 1869 he was accepted into the prestigious National Academy of Design and began four years of study in New York. Porter taught art to support himself through school.

The Studio Museum in Harlem is at 144 West 125th Street, between Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and Lenox Avenue. For more information, www.studiomuseum.org or 212-864-4500.