EDWARD POTTHAST, Beach at Far Rockaway

Private Collection, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania
By descent to the present owners

Edward Potthast was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857 and became one of many important American artists, including John Henry Twachtman, Joseph De Camp, and Frank Duveneck, to emerge from the progressive, culturally-minded city.  As a young man, he studied intermittently at the McMicken School of Design and the Cincinnati Academy.  He traveled to Europe in 1881 to train in Antwerp and Munich before enrolling at the Acadèmie Julian in 1885.  After briefly returning to Cincinnati, he moved to New York City in 1892 and continued his studies at the National Academy of Design, where he was awarded the prestigious Thomas B. Clarke Prize in 1899 for best figure painting.  In 1906, he was elevated to full academician.

Following his move to New York, Potthast began spending many summers along the New England coast in such popular beach towns as Gloucester and Rockport in Massachusetts and Ogunquit and Monhegan Islands in Maine.  His attraction to the colorful and vibrant crowds populating the rocky coastline was immediate.  Even when living in New York, he traveled to nearby Coney Island and Far Rockaway with his easel and paints in tow, eager to capture the vitality and visual excitement of bustling beach scenes.  

Beach at Far Rockaway is a classic example of Potthast’s spontaneous Impressionist style and vibrant palette and demonstrates his consummate skill in capturing the carefree leisure of a bright summer’s day at the beach.  Potthast employs a low horizon line to accentuate the vastness of the intense cobalt blue sky.  The flat, sandy shore is punctuated by colorfully-clad children and mothers and numerous white beach umbrellas.  Seemingly dashed off by Potthast’s skillful hand, the pared down colors and shapes create a visually interesting interplay of forms, imbuing the scene with a freshness and modernity.  Paintings such as Beach at Far Rockaway won Potthast critical acclaim and generated tremendous popular appeal during his career, and today comprise the body of work for which he is best known and most highly regarded.