Butterflies and Flowers
Charles Ethan Porter, American, 1847 - 1923
about 1878
Transparent and opaque watercolor over very faint indications of graphite on wove paper
Image: 9 1/16 × 6 1/8 in. (23 × 15.5 cm)
Sight: 12 3/4 × 8 3/4 in. (32.4 × 22.3 cm)
Sheet (Irreg.): 12 7/8 × 9 3/16 in. (32.7 × 23.3 cm)
Frame: 20 3/8 × 16 13/16 × 13/16 in. (51.8 × 42.7 × 2 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Phyllis and Bertram Geller 1937 Memorial Fund
2018.21
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
19th century
Object Name
Watercolor
Research Area
Watercolor
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed, in graphite, lower center, in composition: C E Porter
Label
Early scientific writing in the US explored the rich natural history of North America, defending the New World against claims that it was comparatively inferior to Europe. The renowned artist-naturalist John James Audubon devoted himself to cataloging American fauna in the early 19th century, producing this illustration of an American bison for a series of books on North American mammals. Despite being praised as the most distinct North American animal, the bison was already being hunted toward extinction in the 1840s, largely by white settlers and trappers.
The field of natural history evolved into several independent branches of science by the late 1870s, when Charles Ethan Porter, a moderately successful African American artist, made this delicate study. Porter’s stunningly detailed watercolor would likely have appealed to a growing number of amateur naturalists at this time.
From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022
GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022
Exhibition History
This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5-April 11, 2022.
Published References
Binstock, Jonathan, P. and Lowery Stokes Sims. African American Art – 200 Years: 40 Distinctive Voices Reveal the Breadth of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Art. New York: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, 2008. Cummings, Hildegard. Charles Ethan Porter: African-American Master of Still Life. New Britain, CT: New Britain Museum of American Art, 2007. Foutch, Ellery. “Capturing Nature: American Artists’ Pursuit of Natural History.” In Flora/Fauna: The Naturalist Impulse in American Art, 75–96. Old Lyme, CT: Florence Griswold Museum, 2017. French, H. W. Art and Artists in Connecticut. Boston: Lee and Shepard, Publishers; New York: Charles T. Dillingham, 1879. Fusscas, Helen K., et al. Charles Ethan Porter: 1847?–1923. Marlborough, CT: The Connecticut Gallery, Inc., 1987. Gerdts, William H. Two Centuries of American Still-Life Painting: The Frank and Michelle Hevrdejs Collection. Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2016. Mitchell, Mark D. The Art of American Still Life: Audubon to Warhol. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2015. Parsons, Jennifer Stettler. “Flora/Fauna: The Naturalist Impulse in American Art.” In Flora/Fauna: The Naturalist Impulse in American Art, 13–74. Old Lyme, CT: Florence Griswold Museum, 2017.
Provenance
Sacks Fine Arts, New York, New York; sold to private collection, New York; Swann Auction Galleries, New York, New York, “African-American Fine Art,” October 4, 2018, Lot 2; sold to present collection, 2018.
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