Object Details
Artist
James A. Porter, born Baltimore, MD 1905-died Washington, DC 1970
Exhibition Label
The softly brushed lines and gently calibrated color of Still Life with Peonies reflects Porter’s thinking about the confluence of the personal and the contextual in the practice of art. The exuberant vase of flowers negotiates with (and against) the vertical rungs and curved handrail. The simple screen and striped wallpaper serve as counterpoints to the energy of the peonies’ petals. Presented as the primary focus of the composition, Porter depicted the flowers carried by his wife, Dorothy, when she was honored at Howard University in 1947, while the painting-within-a-painting represents a canvas Porter completed during a research trip to Cuba and Haiti.
African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
Date
1949
Object number
1994.59
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
40 x 30 1/8 in. (101.6 x 76.5 cm.)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Still life\other\vase
Still life\art object\painting
Still life\furniture\table
Still life\flower\peony
Still life\furniture\screen
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1994.59
