Long Island Farm Land

Long after abstract expressionism had upended the figurative tradition in American painting, Fairfield Porter’s work remained staunchly realist. Porter is best known for his depictions of everyday American life, often using his family and friends as models. Long Island Farm Land, however, is unusual for Porter in that it includes no figures. For this reason and because Porter so efficiently depicts this scene with minimal brushwork, this painting pushes the boundary between realism and abstraction more than most in his work. In its fresh immediacy, the painting shows the influence of the impressionists and post-impressionists such as Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, whose work Porter saw at a 1938 Art Institute of Chicago exhibit and deeply admired.