Edward Henry Potthast
1857 – 1927
Edward Potthast is considered among the best of the American Impressionist
painters.
Potthast was born June 10, 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the age of sixteen
he had begun an apprenticeship with a large Cincinnati lithographic firm. He
supported himself there until the age of 39 when he moved to New York
City to embark on a career as a full-time painter.
From 1882 to 1885 he studied in Munich, Germany. In 1887, he moved to
Paris before settling in Barbizon, the home of the great French school of
plein-air landscape painters and a place where many of the French
Impressionists had worked in their youth.
Potthast again returned to his home town of Cincinnati and his job at the
lithographers. During this time, the Cincinnati Museum of Art purchased
one of his paintings, which appears to have been the turning point for him as
a full-time artist.
In 1895, he moved to New York City and opened a studio. Upon his arrival,
he began working as a freelance illustrator for such popular magazines as
Scribner’s and Century to support his artistic career but within a few years
was firmly established in the New York art world. He won numerous prizes
and was included in all the important annual exhibitions. He was a member
of many art associations, such as the National Academy of Design, the
Society of American Artists and the Salmagundi Club.
In 1908 he opened a studio in the Gainsborough Building overlooking
Central Park. People on family outings and children playing in the park
became a favourite subject of the artist.
When Potthast was not painting in Central Park or on summer trips to New
England, he would go to the beaches of Long Island. The paintings that
resulted from his trips to Long Island are considered his signature works.
On March 9, 1927 at the age of 69, Potthast died of a heart attack in his
studio.