The ostensible subject of this well-known painting is his daughter Katie, posed in the yard of the family's Long Island home, yet Porter was less interested in capturing his sitter's personality than in visually integrating figure and background. The designs of the girl's vest are echoed in the broad patches of sunlight and shadow on the lawn and in the formations of the tree's foliage. This painting encompasses Porter's painterly style and philosophy: as a realist, he depicted locations and individuals from his own life, but he rendered those subjects with an expressive quality that recalled the turn-of-the-century Parisian masters. Under the Elms demonstrates why some of the great Abstract Expressionist artists admired Porter's art: in works like this one, he skillfully incorporated surface patterning and all-over compositional effects into representational imagery, while still suggesting a reality above and beyond the observed world. The landscape could almost be a fantastic scene within the girl's own imagination, as she stands on the threshold of adolescence. (http://www.theartstory.org/artist-porter-fairfield-artworks.htm#pnt_5)