A Realist in an Age of Imagination: Charles Ethan Porter

The talented nineteenth-century painter from Connecticut who took a big gamble to perfect his craft

‘Mountain Laurel’ (1888) by Charles Ethan Porter at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, gift of Alfred T Morris [view license]

Some friends and I play a game on museum visits. We ask each other which work of art we would take home. I’m guessing that anyone reading this may already play such a game with friends or would enjoy doing so.

The question is a way to frame discussion about what we’re seeing that day, how it compares with other works we’ve seen, together and separately. It’s not about greed or a desire to remove a work of art from a public space and hoard it for private viewing but a way to reflect on our personal responses and deepen engagement.

That said, I would love to put the Mountain Laurel painting shown above, on display in my small home office. It’s by Charles Ethan Porter (c.1847–1923) and was painted in 1888. There’s something so fresh and real about it — as if the flowers just arrived in the vase, perhaps gathered on a ramble a matter of minutes earlier.

mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) in bloom photographed by David G. Young, the author’s husband, and detail of Porter’s painting [view license]

I’ve seen mountain laurel just like this in blooms on hikes in early spring in Virginia parks…