In the steps of Rufus Porter, Yankee original

Small photos haven't prepared me for the scale and starkness of the mural before me now. It's impressive, about 15 feet wide. At the center of the scene stands a slender tree, its crown of foliage bright gold on one side and dark green on the other in an almost abstract rendering of sunlight and shadow. The style is simple, even primitive, with trees and houses suggested in a few basic colors and sharp, almost cartoonish lines. The overall impression is one of symmetry and optimism, a workmanlike tribute to American trade and industry. Porter clearly observed the principles of classical landscape composition, reproduced here with flinty New England simplicity.

Born in 1792 in the prosperous farming town of West Boxford, Mass., Porter was 9 when his family moved to the barely settled community of Flintstown, Me. The move was the first of many for Porter, who remained a wanderer both physically and intellectually for the rest of his 92 years. He was at various times a fiddler, an inventor, an author, a publisher, a soldier and a sailor. As painter, he turned out portraits, signs and, most famously, murals such as this one. At a time when fashionable homes bore imported wallpapers depicting elaborate landscape scenes, Porter created and popularized a school of home-grown home décor, painting recognizable native landscapes in a plain style directly on the walls.

Traveling country roads on foot, painting kit on his back, Porter would arrive in a town and set up shop, distributing leaflets publicizing his services as a short-order portraitist and mural painter - and on occasion offering pieces in exchange for room and board. "Correct Likenesses in full Colours for two Dollars," proclaimed his 1821 notice in the Haverhill (Mass.) Gazette. "No Likeness, no Pay." He decorated the walls of hundreds of homes and taverns with crisp, colorful vistas of seasides, orderly villages and even, ascending the walls of many a staircase, steep crags complete with mountain climbers and the occasional goat.