Charles Ethan Porter. Charles Ethan Porter was an American painter who specialized in still life painting.
A student at the National Academy of Design in New York City, he was one of the first African Americans to exhibit there. He was the only African-American artist at the turn of the century who painted in still life.
Porter was born most likely in 1847 in Hartford, Connecticut. His father was possibly a mill worker and his mother worked as a servant.
Porter's family moved to what was then the nearby village of Rockville by the early 1850s. The family suffered many losses when Porter was young.
They endured poverty and tragedy just a few years after moving to Rockville. Porter lost seven of his siblings to illness and one to war between 1858 and 1868. Porter's brothers, Joseph and William, enlisted in the Union Army in 1863. Joseph joined the 29th Connecticut Infantry Regiment and William joined the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery. Joseph was killed in Virginia in 1864, and was buried in Rockville just days before his regiment returned home. William became seriously ill with malaria and was granted a disability discharge in January 1865. Porter was his family's first child to attend high school, graduating in 1865. Porter left Rockville in 1868 to study painting in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, a town twenty miles north of Rockville. In 1869, after two years of art study at Wesleyan Academy, Porter
A student at the National Academy of Design in New York City, he was one of the first African Americans to exhibit there. He was the only African-American artist at the turn of the century who painted in still life.
Porter was born most likely in 1847 in Hartford, Connecticut. His father was possibly a mill worker and his mother worked as a servant.
Porter's family moved to what was then the nearby village of Rockville by the early 1850s. The family suffered many losses when Porter was young.
They endured poverty and tragedy just a few years after moving to Rockville. Porter lost seven of his siblings to illness and one to war between 1858 and 1868. Porter's brothers, Joseph and William, enlisted in the Union Army in 1863. Joseph joined the 29th Connecticut Infantry Regiment and William joined the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery. Joseph was killed in Virginia in 1864, and was buried in Rockville just days before his regiment returned home. William became seriously ill with malaria and was granted a disability discharge in January 1865. Porter was his family's first child to attend high school, graduating in 1865. Porter left Rockville in 1868 to study painting in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, a town twenty miles north of Rockville. In 1869, after two years of art study at Wesleyan Academy, Porter
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