Charles Ethan Porter

American, 1847 - 1923

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In this painting, a pile of apples is spread out on a wooden surface, with some stacked atop each other. The apples are predominantly red, but some have large patches of light green or yellow. They have short brown stems. The main pile of apples is slightly to the left of center, and some apples are away from the pile, towards the edges of the surface. The apples cast shadows on the wooden surface, suggesting a light coming from the right side. The light also reflects off of the apples. Behind the apples is a dark gray wall.
Charles Ethan Porter, Still Life with Apples, 1886, oil on canvas, Gift of Lisa Unger Baskin, in honor of Emma Nogrady Kaplan and Sidney Kaplan, 2013.131.1

Still Life with Apples

Charles Ethan Porter · 1886 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2013.131.1
A bouquet of six blousy, frilled, white and pale pink peonies are gathered in a vase in this vertical still-life painting. One more flower lies on the table in front of the vase. The bright, cream-white petals of two open flowers curl back from yellow centers. The petals of other flowers are cupped in dense layers, some petals streaked in dark or blush pink. The roughly oval, green leaves come to points at each end. The straight-sided vase is painted so that it nearly disappears into the fog-gray and soft brown background, but the optics of the water in the clear glass play with the light falling beyond it. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “C.E. Porter.”
Charles Ethan Porter, Peonies in a Vase, c. 1885, oil on canvas, Gift of William and Abigail Gerdts, 2018.44.124

Peonies in a Vase

Charles Ethan Porter · c. 1885 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2018.44.124

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