CHARLES ETHAN PORTER (1847 - 1923) Three Apples (Still Life of Apples, Grapes and Blueberries).
Oil on canvas, circa 1877-81. 254x355 mm; 10x14 inches. Signed in oil, lower right.
Provenance: Roger King Gallery, Providence, RI, with the label on the frame back; private New York collection.
This fine painting is a wonderful example of Porter's series of still lifes of apples, from his early period in Hartford, CT. This oil has the realistic detail, delicate handling, straw covered ground and the muted artist's signature similar to the larger and masterful Apples on the Ground, circa 1878, in the collection of the Wadsworth Aetheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. The artist bravely moved from New York to the smaller Hartford, where he found a receptive popular and critical audience for these works. These apple paintings sold well, and he continued to paint them: "Porter's apples are certainly extraordinary productions" raved a Hartford Daily Times reporter in 1878. Cummings pp. 36-37.
