Art

The Culpeper Hunt,
John J. Porter (1825-1888)

The Culpeper Hunt by John J. Porter descended in the Jameson-LaRue family of Culpeper County, Virginia, along with a pair of Jefferson Wright portraits of Mr. and Mrs. William Major that have recently been placed at the Virginia Museum of Art. The Majors, Jamesons, and LaRues were related as follows: William Major was married to Elizabeth Thatcher Corbin, and they had two daughters. Frances Major married John LaRue, and Elizabeth married John Jameson, Jr. Their daughter Elizabeth married John J. Porter.

Although Porter's work is scarce, he is known to have executed a painting entitled Bachelors Hall for his father-in-law, John Jameson. The stretcher of this painting is inscribed "View of the Mill Farm Owned by John Jameson/Painted by John J. Porter 1858." 

There is a third pair of Major portraits which reputedly have "a sturdy house with four chimneys" visible through a window in the background. Although it is not definite that the farm in The Culpeper Hunt is the Major's home "Fairview," that possibility does exist.

Porter is listed in Groce and Wallace and in Wright's book on Virginia artists.

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