Fairfield Porter

Estate of the artist
Anne E.C. Porter (his wife)
By descent to the present owners

The Arts Club of Chicago, Fairfield Porter:  Paintings and Works on Paper, November 12 - December 31, 1984, no. 7

Joan Ludman, Fairfield Porter:  A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Watercolors and Pastels, New York, 2001, no. L306, p. 172, illustrated

SURFACE: in good condiiton UNDER ULTRA VIOLET: no apparent inpainting
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

We are delighted to offer the following group of works from the estate of Anne Elizabeth Channing Porter.  Aside from her role as Fairfield Porter’s wife and model, she was a serious and well-regarded poet for most of her life.  Her anthology of poems, published in the 1990s when she was 83, won critical acclaim and made her a National Book Award finalist.  She and Fairfield married when she was 20, in 1932; the marriage produced five children and lasted for over forty years, until his death in 1975.

The couple moved to Southampton, on Long Island’s South Fork, in 1949.  Porter, an intellectual and poet himself, was known primarily as a writer and art critic at that point.  It took many years before his work achieved public recognition in the 1950s.  In the following fourteen lots are examples of the subjects for which he is best known, the landscapes and people of his immediate surroundings, all painted in his characteristically direct, vibrant, sensual painterly style.  The landscapes range from Main Street in Southampton, to Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, where his family owned a home, to New York City.  The portraits include his friend, Kenneth Koch, the celebrated poet, playwright and educator and Porter’s daughters, Elizabeth and Katie.

Katie’s comments about her father offer the best summation of his personality and work, “My father, Fairfield Porter, was as direct, unaffected and subtle as his paintings.  As both a critic and a teacher, he empathically appreciated a wide range of styles and forms. He himself struggled for many years before finding his mature style, which he began to master in his late forties. 

Once Fairfield picked up a brush and painted on a small section of a student’s canvas to demonstrate how to handle a passage the student found difficult. The student exclaimed, ‘It took you five minutes to do that!’.  Fairfield replied, ‘Five minutes and forty years.’”