Self portrait

A self portrait by New Zealand expatriate Frederick Porter showing the artist aged 32, with an alert watchful expression and dashing orange scarf. It was painted at a period when Porter was working in the midst of the London progressive art scenes of Camden Town and Bloomsbury. The painting technique with its broken brushstrokes and simple blocky masses shows that, like the artists of these groups, Porter had come under the influence of French Post-impressionism during his five years study in Paris 1905-1910. He moved to London in 1910, and in 1914 rented a studio at 8 Fitzroy St, Camden Town. His friends included Walter Sickert and Duncan Grant (both of whom he shared studio space with at 8 Fitzroy St), Charles Ginner, Robert Bevan, Roger Fry and Matthew Smith. He exhibited with the Allied Artists' Association in 1913-14, and with the London Group from 1916.

Sickert's characteristic muddy palette may have influenced the browns, greens, ochres, pinks and oranges of the portrait, although these were also a popular combination with Bloomsbury painters such as Duncan Grant, for example 'Back view of David Garnett' c.1916. During the same period, Porter was experimenting with a high-keyed fauvist palette in paintings such as 'The chalk cliff' 1918.

Vicky Robson, 2010