South Meadow, Afternoon

The present work captures the surroundings of the artist’s daily life in a manner true to the scenery but also, more importantly, to his own impulsive feelings during the painting process. According to Charles LeClair, "Fairfield Porter…is an artist who saw color in terms of subject matter. An admirer of Vuillard and the impressionist, he painted coolly observed scenes from a pleasant, leisurely life. In South Meadow, Afternoon—a view from the Maine island where his family spent their summers—Porter uses a typical, quietly attractive color chord. Yet we respond to it less as an abstract scheme than as an evocation of lights and atmosphere." (Color in Contemporary Painting, New York, 1991, p. 77) Indeed, Porter expertly captures the sunny Maine day in the present work, transporting the viewer to the coastal scenes that he admired throughout his career.