Edward H. Potthast (1857-1927)

Landscape painter and illustrator Edward H. Potthast was born in 1857 in Cincinatti, Ohio. He studied off and on at the McMicken School of Design between 1869 and 1887, and was a lithography apprentice at Ehrgott Krebbs Co. for one year. After studying in Paris with Cormon in 1887, Potthast settled in New York City and began illustrating for Harper’s and Scribner’s. It was not until the mid-1890s that he began painting the impressionistic beach scenes with women and children for which he is primarily known. He often painted along the New England coast, at art colonies such as those in Rockport, Massachusetts and Ogunquit, Maine. Potthast exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Annuals from 1895 to 1927, the National Academy of Design from 1897 to 1927, the Boston Art Club from 1896 to 1909, the Paris Salon from 1889 to 1891, and the Corcoran Gallery biennials from 1907 to 1923. Edward Henry Potthast died in New York City in 1927.