Hollyhocks

Porter, Connecticut-based as well as New York- and Paris-trained, was among the first Black American artists to exhibit his work nationally. He was also one of the few painters of color to concentrate on the still-life genre. After decades of success painting largely fruit and floral subjects, primarily in oil—with the support of notable patrons such as Samuel Clemens and Frederic Edwin Church—Porter died in poverty and obscurity. A resurgence of interest in his work dates to the late 1980s.



Hollyhocks comes from the end of Porter’s career, when he was experimenting with bolder compositional formats that foregrounded floral subjects more directly against the picture plane. Painted with dark backgrounds, the blossoms appear richer and more vibrant in their naturalism.