This bright and pretty floral study by Charles Ethan Porter was made during or shortly after his Paris period. Around 1881, after raising $1,000 from auctioning his paintings, Porter moved to Paris. There, Porter enrolled at the École Nationale Superiéure des Arts Décoratifs before studying at the Académie Julian. Like many American painters, his still life paintings were infused with a realism greatly influenced by Henri Fantin-Latour. Porter unsuccessfully attempted to show his work in the Salon and returned to Connecticut in 1884.
This painting shows the immediate influence of Fantin-Latour on Porter. Like his Still Life of Flowers, 1882-83, according to Hildegard Cummings, Porter learned from Fantin-Latour how to achieve realism with more painterly rather than detailed strokes, and to use lighter and softer colors against warmer and less dark backgrounds. The loaded brushstrokes in the petals, the warm sienna background and the boldly impastoed highlight on the blue vase in this canvas all are lessons learned while in Paris. Cummings pp. 63-64.
