FREDERICK JAMES PORTER (1883-1944) A RUGBY MATCH signed verso: F.J Porter oil on canvas 44.0 x 60.0cm / 17.3 x 23.6in Porter studied in Paris for five years at the Academie Julien before moving to London in 1910, where he took a studio in Fitzrovia. He was friends with a number of well-known figures, including Walter Sickert, Roger Fry and Matthew Smith. He was made Vice-President of the London Group in 1924, and was a founder member of the London Artist's Association, along with Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, Bernard Adeney and Frank Dobson. Porter's patrons included Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes and Samuel Courtald. James Boswell wrote in 1945 that, "his paintings do not please easily or quickly, but like those whose temperament is quiet and friendly they repay only those who make the effort to see".