Fairfield Porter

While a student at Harvard, Porter majored in fine arts; he continued his studies at the Art Students' League when he moved to New York City in 1928. His studies at the Art Students' League predisposed him to produce socially relevant art and, although the subjects would change, he continued to produce realist work for the rest of his career. He would be criticized and revered for continuing his representational style in the midst of the Abstract Expressionist movement. His subjects were primarily landscapes, domestic interiors and portraits of family, friends and fellow artists, many of them affiliated with the New York School of writers, including John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and James Schuyler. Many of his paintings were set in or around the family summer house on Great Spruce Head Island, Maine and the family home at 49 South Main Street, Southampton, New York. His painterly vision, which encompassed a fascination with nature and the ability to reveal extraordinariness in ordinary life, was heavily indebted to the French painters Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard. John Ashbery wrote of him: "Characteristically, [Porter] tended to prefer the late woolly Vuillards to the early ones everyone likes". Porter said once, "When I paint, I think that what would satisfy me is to express what Bonnard said Renoir told him: 'make everything more beautiful.'"

Fairfield Porter studied at Harvard University, Art Students League of New York and Hessian Hills School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is painting and art criticism. Work by Fairfield Porter is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Smithsonian American Art Museum.

• Name — Fairfield Porter • Born — 10 June 1907 • Birthplace — Winnetka, Illinois, U.S. • Died — 18 September 1975 • Place of death — Southampton, New York, U.S. • Field — Painting, art criticism • Training — Harvard University, Art Students' League • Movement — New York Figurative Expressionism

Porter bequeathed about 250 of his works to the Parrish Art Museum. • Laurence at the Piano (1953), New Britain Museum of American Art. • Katie and Anne (1955), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden • Still Life with Casserole (1955), Smithsonian American Art Museum • Elaine de Kooning (1957), Metropolitan Museum of Art • Frank O' Hara (1957), Toledo Museum of Art • Maine Coast (1958), Metropolitan Museum of Art • Chrysanthemums (1958), Wadsworth Atheneum • Schwenk, (1959), Museum of Modern Art • Children in a Field (1960), Whitney Museum of American Art • Boathouses (1961), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden • The Garden Road (1962), Whitney Museum of American Art • Jerry at the Piano (1962), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden • Jimmy and Liz (1963), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts • October Interior (1963), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art • The Screen Porch (1964), Whitney Museum of American Art • Flowers by the Sea (1965), Museum of Modern Art • Interior in Sunlight (1965), Brooklyn Museum • The Mirror (1966), Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art • Anne in a Striped Dress (1967), Parrish Art Museum • John MacWhinnie (1968), Parrish Art Museum • Under the Elms (1971), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts • Sunrise on South Main Street (1973), Metropolitan Museum of Art • Inez MacWhinnie (1974), Parrish Art Museum • The Dock (1974–75), Farnsworth Art Museum • Apple Blossoms I (1974), The Christmas Tree (1971), Street Scene (1969), Muscarelle Museum of Art • Near Union Square--Looking up Park Avenue (1975), Metropolitan Museum of Art