Porter, Fairfield

Porter, Fairfield (1907–1975). American painter, printmaker, writer, and editor, born in Winnetka, Illinois, son of an architect, James Porter (d. 1939), and brother of the distinguished photographer Eliot Porter (1901–1990). He studied at Harvard University, 1924–8, and the Art Students League, New York, 1928–30. His favourite subjects were interiors and landscapes, treated in a quiet, intimate way. His basic approach varied little over the years, but from the late 1940s his handling became broader, influenced by Abstract Expressionism; in this sense there is a kinship with the work of his friend Larry Rivers, although Porter's paintings are more solid and traditional (Katie and Anne, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, 1955). Matthew Baigell (Dictionary of American Art, 1979) writes that ‘His was a broad, placid stroke and a blonde palette, that of a modernized American Impressionist or a follower of Pierre Bonnardrsquo; (he was in fact influenced by an exhibition of the work of Bonnard and Vuillard he saw at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1938). From 1935 Porter wrote art criticism and in 1951 he became associate editor of Art News. A collection of his criticism was published in 1979; he also wrote a monograph on Eakins (1959).