alb3669098

CHARLES ETHAN PORTER. Untitled (Cracked Watermelon)

Untitled (Cracked Watermelon). Artist: Charles Ethan Porter (1847-1923). Dimensions: 19 1/8 × 28 3/16 in. (48.6 × 71.6 cm). Date: ca. 1890.
The largely Connecticut-based, New York- and Paris-trained Porter was among the first African American artists to exhibit his work nationally. "Untitled (Cracked Watermelon)" is one of his largest and most impressive still lifes. Its subject--originally an African gourd brought to the New World by seventeenth-century Spaniards and cultivated by colonists--is also significant. Porter chose to paint what had been an earlier symbol of American abundance--and during the Civil War period one particularly associated with free blacks--when it was increasingly defined by virulent stereotyping. By reclaiming the "American" subject in artistic terms (and with a French stylistic flavor), Porter challenged a contemporary racist trope.
A tour de force of the artist's mature style--perfected in Paris under the influence of the work of Henri Fantin-Latour and Edouard Manet--"Untitled (Cracked Watermelon)" reveals Porter's bravura handling of paint as well as his skills as a colorist in the composition's dramatic light-dark contrasts of complementary colors. After decades of success painting still lifes of fruit and flowers--with the support of patrons such as Samuel Clemens and Frederic Edwin Church--Porter died in poverty and obscurity. A resurgence of interest in his work dates to the late 1980s.

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Author: CHARLES ETHAN PORTER (1847-1923)

Title: Untitled (Cracked Watermelon)

Caption: Untitled (Cracked Watermelon). Artist: Charles Ethan Porter (1847-1923). Dimensions: 19 1/8 × 28 3/16 in. (48.6 × 71.6 cm). Date: ca. 1890. The largely Connecticut-based, New York- and Paris-trained Porter was among the first African American artists to exhibit his work nationally. "Untitled (Cracked Watermelon)" is one of his largest and most impressive still lifes. Its subject--originally an African gourd brought to the New World by seventeenth-century Spaniards and cultivated by colonists--is also significant. Porter chose to paint what had been an earlier symbol of American abundance--and during the Civil War period one particularly associated with free blacks--when it was increasingly defined by virulent stereotyping. By reclaiming the "American" subject in artistic terms (and with a French stylistic flavor), Porter challenged a contemporary racist trope. A tour de force of the artist's mature style--perfected in Paris under the influence of the work of Henri Fantin-Latour and Edouard Manet--"Untitled (Cracked Watermelon)" reveals Porter's bravura handling of paint as well as his skills as a colorist in the composition's dramatic light-dark contrasts of complementary colors. After decades of success painting still lifes of fruit and flowers--with the support of patrons such as Samuel Clemens and Frederic Edwin Church--Porter died in poverty and obscurity. A resurgence of interest in his work dates to the late 1980s.

Technique/material: OIL ON CANVAS

Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Credit: Album

Image size: 5050 × 3386 px | 48.9 MB

Print size: 42.8 × 28.7 cm | 1988.2 × 1333.1 in (300 dpi)

Keywords: AMERICAN PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE • CANVAS • CHARLES ETHAN PORTER • CONNECTICUT • HARTFORD • MADE IN HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, UNITED STATES • METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, USA • NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA • OIL ON CANVAS • OIL PAINTINGS • PAINTINGS • UNITED STATES