Rufus Porter, 1792-1884

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".....little by little, it gradually became manifest to me that the sculpture and painting were, in fact, the all in all of the thing to be done; that these, which I had long been in the careless habit of thinking subordinate to the architecture, were in fact the entire masters of the architecture; and that the architect who was not a sculptor or a painter was nothing better than a frame-maker on a large scale."

John Ruskin, "The Seven Lamps of Architecture", 2nd. Ed., 1855 p.xii

Rufus Porter's versatility and "abnormally busy career" make him America's best known 19th c. itinerate artist. In the 160 rural New England houses decorated with his stylized painted landscapes, you can see time saving techniques that characterized his career as an artist and inventor. Sponging, creating leafy trees and bushes with cork stamps and using stencils alongside freehand work. He published his fresco techniques in "Curious Arts" from which sprang the Porter-school of mural art. He also founded and published "Scientific American" in which he ran a series called "The Art of Painting" which covered all manner of painting.