Edward Henry Potthast
1857 - 1927
Edward Henry Potthast was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857 to working class
German immigrants. In 1869, he became a student at the McMicken School of
design where he studied under Thomas Satterwhite Noble until 1881. At the
age of 24, Potthast traveled to Antwerp, Berlin where he studied with
Polydore Beaufaux and Charles Verlat. He studied at the Royal Academy in
Munich and the Académie Julian in Paris before returning to Cincinnati in
1885. Potthast worked as a lithographer and resumed his studies with
Thomas Satterwhite Noble until 1886 when he returned to Paris to study with
Fernand Cormon. In 1895, Potthast decided to leave Cincinnati so he could
establish himself in New York City. He exhibited oil paintings and
watercolors in exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago beginning in
1896, and at the National Academy of Design in 1897.
Potthast spent his summers traveling to seaside art colonies in
Massachusetts and Maine including Rockport, Gloucester, Cape Cod, Ogunquit,
and Mohegan Island. Potthast died in his studio in 1927 in New York.
The Breakers
12 x 16 inches
Oil on canvas
Signed lower right