Lilacs

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.

Charles Ethan Porter was born in the late 1840s in Rockville, Connecticut. In 1869 he was accepted into the prestigious National Academy of Design and began four years of study in New York where he taught art to support himself through school. He completed his studies in 1873 and opened a small studio in New York. Branching away from his still lifes, Porter began to explore the landscape genre and incorporate elements of Impressionism into his work. In 1884, Porter moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he introduced his impressionist-inspired new work, which defied the “established aesthetics” of the day.