Latest from Painter Leonard Porter

New York painter Leonard Porter has recently completed this image of St. Therese of Lisieux. Porter has been known for some years now as a Modernist- turned-Classicist whose specialty is the subject matter of ancient mythology, though he has done several important murals on Christian themes. In this new work, we see Porter taking up the mantle of the Spanish painter Francisco Zurbaran, especially in the contrasts of color and beautifully rendered fabrics. The reason this painting should be studied carefully is the expression of the saint herself. This is not the china-doll porcelain face of sentimental nineteenth-century holy cards. This is the look of one who contemplates the face of God. The gaze of the painting is not at the viewer, but beyond the viewer. Though we recognize her from her photographs, this is not a portrait but an icon in Western, three-dimensional style: perfected, divinized, with just enough of a “dry” gaze to know that her perceptions are not of the things of this world even as she has a hint of a smile. Masterful work indeed.