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Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Rufus Porter’s Curious World: Art and Invention in America, 1815–1860
December 12, 2019–May 31, 2020, label: Porter’s best documented panoramic murals decorated Massachusetts houses. Although some still survive in their original interiors, this mural, along with the rest of its cycle, was removed before the Francis Howe house in West Dedham (now Westwood) was demolished in 1965. Featuring a large cupolaed building—probably an academy—it decorated the second-floor hall, extending the mountainous landscape of the two-story stair wall (seen in digital reproductions on the adjacent touchscreen). Porter’s perspectives—fore-, middle- and backgrounds—were more finely developed than those of many of his followers. His arching elm trees and “wild shrubbery” were among the many details he later described in his Scientific American “Art of Painting” series in 1846 and 1847.
Building a Collection, September 27, 2025-February 23, 2025: A recent and significant gift from Juliene and Carl M. Lindberg and Heller Washam Antiques includes fifteen wall murals painted by Rufus Porter and his son Stephen Twombly Porter in 1838 for the Doctor Francis Howe House in Westwood, MA, near Boston. Facing demolition in 1964, these murals were removed from the house and saved from destruction. Unfortunately, many wall murals painted in the early to mid-19th century had been destroyed by the 1900s. The Howe examples by Rufus Porter serve as an invaluable example of an art form and landscape school tied to New England.
Porter painted wall murals between about 1824 and 1840 for private homes, taverns, and inns, depicting a variety of landscapes inspired by New England. His panoramic landscapes responded to the popularity in scenic wallpaper, but Porter instead offered a decorative alternative with his vibrant scenes painted on dry plaster. Porter himself suggested that his wall murals transported patrons away from the winter months and into “pleasant groves and verdant fields.” As an itinerant artist, he traveled to paint his murals in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, including the Upper Connecticut Valley. Porter’s murals include distinct stylistic features, and he often repeated motifs across his commissions, such as elm trees or vibrant farmhouses atop hills. As part of his technique, he used a dry brush on the tree trunks to simulate the texture of bark. He also wrote instructions for “Landscape Painting on Walls of Rooms” in his Curious Arts of 1825 and later published instructions in Scientific American on mural motifs. Wall murals by other 19th-century artists in the New England region indicate how many followed Porter’s style of mural painting.
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