Edward H. Potthast
Birth Date: June 10, 1857
Death Date: March 9, 1927
Artist Gallery
Edward Potthast was born in Cincinnati on June 10, 1857, the second son of Bernandine and Henry Potthast. His father is listed in Cincinnati Directories as a chair and cabinet maker, while his mother helped out as a clerk and milliner. As a child, Potthast’s education was enlivened by doodling in the margins of countless textbooks; he graduated from public school in 1872. A year later he began a six-year apprenticeship with a local lithographic firm, Ehrgott Kreb Company. For three additional years he was employed by Cincinnati’s Strowbridge Lithograph Company supplementing his education by attending two hour long evening classes at McMicken after the long nineteenth century work day. By 1882, Potthast had set aside enough money to travel to Germany for further training. Three years later he returned to Cincinnati and again was employed by Strowbridge Lithograph and resumed classes at McMicken School. By the age of 30 he accumulated enough money to again return to Europe, this time his primary destination was France, especially Paris, and he came under the influence of the French Impressionists. Before his return back to Cincinnati, to his amazement, he had an entry accepted into the Paris Salon and successfully competed for a medal in Munich. On the eve of his fortieth birthday and after more than twenty years of study, this shy artist was confident enough to take the decisive step to leave Cincinnati for permanent residence in New York and his career took off. In the last years of his life he used his chief strength, his exquisite use of color, to build his forms. He created to the end, although by that time he had prospered from his sales and owned an interest in the Gainsborough Studios. He died alone in his studio from a heart attack on March 9, 1927, just three months before his seventieth birthday, after attending a luncheon at the National Academy. With the simple use of crayon “Sewing, Central Park” takes you back to a place and time that seems magical in our hectic world. Potthast’s images were and are loved for their cheerfulness, their affirmation of the peaceful side of life.