Still Life with Corn
ca. 1880
Medium
Watercolor on paper
Dimensions
10 1/2 in. × 17 in. (26.7 × 43.2 cm) Mat: 22 × 28 in. (55.9 × 71.1 cm)
Classification
Watercolor
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Marguerite and Frank A. Cosgrove Jr. Fund and Cordelia and Jesse Zanger and Bonnie Johnson Sacerdote Foundation Gifts, 2016
Accession Number
2016.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
Charles Ethan Porter’s *Still Life with Corn*, painted around 1880, offers a quiet celebration of American abundance through its delicate arrangement of corn and apples. Executed in watercolor on paper, the work measures just over ten by seventeen inches, allowing the translucent medium to capture the subtle sheen of kernels and the soft glow of fruit skins with remarkable luminosity. As a still-life subject, the painting reflects the nineteenth-century fascination with everyday natural forms, transforming humble produce into objects of contemplation and beauty. Porter, an African American ar...