Frederic Porter Vinton: Observations

"Alexander Moseley" by Frederic Vinton

"It is not fitting for the present writer to attempt a technical criticism of Frederic Porter Vinton's qualities as an artist, but certain points were apparent to artists and laymen alike. No one could see his portraits or know the man without being struck by the seriousness and integrity with which he did his work. He was a realist in the sense that he rendered what he saw with the most simple and direct frankness, but from the faults which may result from a realism too exact, his art was saved by the manner in which what he saw was qualified by his thoroughly artistic temperament.

How close to the fact he came is illustrated by the remark of a physician from Philadelphia, who, seeing in an exhibition at the St. Botolph Club, a portrait by Vinton of a subject who had lost the use of his ears, remarked to a friend: 'He's painted a deaf man.' He was asked why he supposed the original to be defective in his hearing. 'Why,' the other answered, 'can't you see that he's listening with his eyes?' When Vinton was asked if he had intentionally given this expression to his sitter, he answered simply: 'I only painted what I saw.'

Although Vinton was known by his portraits, he has done enough in other lines to prove that had he devoted himself to landscape, he would have won a place no less notable. During his early stay in Paris he was naturally under the influence of the Barbizon School. His landscapes of the time show this affiliation with complete frankness. When, however, during his stay in Europe in 1889-90, he came in contact with Impressionism, then his whole method of painting nature altered. He embraced the new gospel of sunlight and open air with the artistic enthusiasm which was characteristic of him, and the brilliant landscape bought by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the last week of the painter's life indicates how intelligently and effectively he was able to apply it without effacing his own individuality." 

(Excerpts from "Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Frederic Porter Vinton" by Arlo Bates on behalf of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911.)