Pieter de Hooch A Boy Bringing Bread c. 1663 Wallace Collection, London
Commentary on Fairfield Porter’s art consistently and correctly acknowledges the debt he owes to de Kooning and Vuillard. Bonnard is often appropriately mentioned as well. But Porter had an education in art that was more complete than any painter of his generation. That knowledge was wide and deep. He occasionally mentioned specific paintings from art’s history that inspired him. More often, his extensive knowledge was obliquely reflected in his work.
References are never superficial.
He had thoroughly absorbed/assimilated the history of painting since the Renaissance.
Balthus
re: Interior with a Dress Pattern (1969) in letter to Rackstraw Downes 28 April 1970 (Spike p. 230) “Did you like the large interior….I was thinking of De Hooch in the Wallace Collection when I painted it.”
FP quoted in Schuyler Diaries July 30, 1969 p. 53: “I think I learned a lot from that de Hooch-Balthus picture.”
Aspects of the painting seem to have been germinating in Porter’s mind for some time.
Maine, Jerry and Laundry 1949
Balthus “The Golden Days” 1944-49 58-1/4″ x 78-3/4″ Hirshhorn Museum
Letter to James Schuyler December 1955 (Leigh p. 144): “I saw the Balthus exhibition, which is to me magnificent—now to me his is the finest artist alive. They are so valid, firm, strong and large, psychologically as well as some of them actually.”
Letter to Kenneth Koch December 1955 (Leigh p. 145): “Also, I saw Balthus in an exhibition at the MMA and he is my current chief hero in painting. His paintings have the materiality of stone, in this they are like 15th century painting in Italy. He makes the subject of even de Kooning seem to be only illusion, though illusion is what the American avant grade thinks they don’t like.”
Letter to Laurence Porter 1958 (Leigh p. 178); “Of the Frenchmen now living I admire especially Balthus and Giacometti.”
Balthus Portrait of Derain 
Anne, Lizzie, and Katie 1958
Vuillard
July Interior
Countess Anna de Noailles
“Jane Wilson elegant in pearls, a picture that is a homage to Vuillard’s portrait of the Comtesse de Polignac.” James Schuyler ARTnews May 1958
Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Prints by Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard
The Art Institute of Chicago December 15, 1938 to January 15, 1939
This exhibition had an enormous influence on Porter’s maturation as a painter.
(Include Porter’s comments about the impact this exhibition had on him.)
Both The Palm and Interior with Boy appeared in that exhibition.
Bonnard
The Palm 
Under the Elms
Interior with Boy
Boy Seated at Table with Red Checkered Cloth
Still Life with Yellow Tablecloth
Velazquez
Lizzie and Bruno, 1970
I don’t have concrete evidence that “Lizzie and Bruno” was influenced by the Prince Baltasar portrait. But others have also seen in the painting a link to “…Renaissance and pre-Renaissance models…”.
Jed Perl “Fairfield Porter” ARTS February 1980
Prince Baltasar Carlos in Hunting Dress, 1635-1636 Prado
Las Meninas Velazquez Prado
The Mirror 1966
“Porter’s feeling for the old masters, and his oblique way of quoting them—testing himself against them—is quite explicit in a painting like The Mirror, 1966. It is his homage to Velazquez’s Las Meninas.”
Robert Hughes, Time, July 12, 1993. Referenced in Ludman p. 224
Letter from Jimmy Schuyler to John Ashbery January 15, 1966
“Anyhow everything’s OK now and we (Schuyler & Porter) made it up by carrying a two ton mirror from my room to the studio so he can paint a self-portrait. Since he has always been averse to doing this you may wonder why the change. A glance at the cover of the current ARTnews explains all.”
Paul Georges “In The Studio” 1965 Whitney Museum of American Art
Cover of ARTnews January 1966
Katie and Forsythia [Girl with Forsythia] 1960 Oil on canvas 72″ x 60″ reproduced in black and white L295 p. 169 in Fairfield Porter A Catalogue Raisonne of the paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Joan Ludman
In a June 1960 letter to Howard Griffin (Material Witness p. 198) Porter writes of this painting: “Since I saw you I painted a large (6 by 5 feet) painting of Katie standing in the living room before the windows, in a posture like Velazquez’ infantas. It has more glow than I usually, or perhaps have ever, got.”
Tamayo
Pretty Little Girl 1937
“Thank you very much for the book on Mexican Art…The book is more interesting to me than the exhibition was. I am glad they produced in color Tamayo’s “Pretty Girl,” which is at the moment one of my favorite pictures. (Material Witness p. 76 Nov. 1940)
On the Porch 1961
Edmund Tarbell
In the summer1933 Fairfield painted a portrait of Anne that she described in a letter to her mother: “The figure sits in a chair with its hands in its lap (a position a little like Tarbell’s portrait of you). It wears an old white tennis dress handed down from K and has bare feet. There is a wall behind it and to one side is a quiet glimpse of islands, clouds and water.” (Spike p.47)
If Anne saw the link to Tarbell, certainly Porter did as well. His relationship to “the Boston School” painters has yet to be investigated.
Girl In a Landscape 1965 Summer 1900
Porter – Iced Coffee
Tarbell – My Family
John Marin
Porter – Black Sea c. 1930
Porter – Penobscot Bay c. 1952 
Rockwell Kent
As a sophomore at Harvard, Porter wrote an excellent essay on Monet. His tutor was sufficiently impressed that Porter was then allowed to write on a topic of his choosing. Porter decided to write about Rockwell Kent. Professor Pope made arrangements for Porter to visit John T. Spaulding, a Boston art collector, who owned a major collection of French Impressionist paintings as well as Maine Coast Winter, 1909 
About this painting, Porter wrote to his mother: “I liked it very much. It was a snow scene on Monhegan.”
As a mature artist, Porter made no mention of his youthful enthusiasm for Rockwell Kent. But I have to believe that the blasts of light that are so typical of many Kent paintings made an impression on Porter that was ultimately reflected in Island Farmhouse.
The Trapper 1921
Resurrection Bay 1919
