American painter. Porter is a realist painter best known for representational paintings during the haydays of the abstract expressionist period. He studied art at Harvard University and in the Art Students League in New York. He mostly painted portraits, interior spaces and landscapes of Maine and Southampton that suggest an energetic style. He was greatly influenced by Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard. Many of his subjects came from his own relationships. He also contributed to the magazine The Nation and was politically active for the suffrage movement and racial equality.