Our Featured Painting:
The Shade
by Edward Henry Potthast
Among a number of important American Impressionists to emerge from Cincinnati during the late nineteenth century, Edward Henry Potthast painted landscapes, marines, still lifes and Dutch peasants. However, he was best known for his depictions of women and children enjoying a leisurely day along a sun-drenched shoreline. Indeed, inspired by the light-filled paintings of the famous Spanish Impressionist, Joaquin Sorolla, which were on display at the Hispanic Society of New York in 1909, Potthast began painting beach subjects around 1910, finding his subjects in places such as Rockaway Beach and Coney Island in New York, as well as in resort locales along the north Atlantic seaboard, including Oqunquit, Maine, and Annisquam and East Gloucester, Massachusetts. Devoid of social commentary, Potthast’s brightly colored portrayals of outdoor recreation by the sea were lauded for their optimism and joy and their skillful handling of natural light. In fact, viewing a Potthast beach picture was like being instantly transported to the seaside on a summer’s day––an effect that was duly noted by a contemporary reviewer, who, upon seeing one such work at the Braus Gallery in New York in January of 1923, proclaimed: “One of the most warming experiences of a gallery visitor is to happen upon an exhibition of paintings by E. H. Potthast. The cold and bitter winds are forgotten in this orgy of sunbaked sands, gay umbrellas and bare-legged children.”

Many of Potthast’s depictions of seaside vacationers were executed on easily portable panels, as is the case with the present example, which features a female figure relaxing under a pair of umbrellas that afford her a measure of shade from the hot sun. Further on, a woman and a boy sit next to the water’s edge, their forms enveloped in dazzling sunlight. The viewer is instantly aware of the charming subject matter; however, upon closer inspection we become aware of the artist’s penchant for a tightly cropped, carefully articulated composition divided into simplified areas of land, sea and sky. The Shade also reveals the way Potthast could use a specific shape––in this case the parasols, one standing straight up, the other leaning on its side––to add eye-catching design elements to a painting.

As was his practice, Potthast refrains from imparting any detail to the faces of his figures, preferring to render the participants in the scene in generalized terms, focusing on matters of pose and gesture in such a way that expresses the pleasure of the activity at hand and the bonds between the people––the small boy being led by an adult towards the red umbrella, for example, and the conversation taking place between the vacationers along the shore (aspects of family life that Potthast, a bachelor, would have been highly sensitive to). In this example, the artist applies his paint in a divisionist manner, alternating between tiny, regular strokes, as in his rendering of the sky, to a broader, patch-like application of pigment, apparent in his portrayal of the foreground. Bright color, of course, played a vital role in Potthast’s shore scenes and this piece is no exception; our eye is immediately drawn to the hot pink of the central umbrella, profiled against the azure blue of the sky. Luminous pastel tonalities have been used to represent the shoreline, while the blue and purples of Impressionism denote the spots of shade that provide relief from the strong rays of the summer sun. Deft touches of white add sparkling highlights to the view, while areas of green, maroon, gold and brown enhance the overall chromatic variety of the picture.

Certainly, this delightful vignette demonstrates Potthast’s skills in translating the effects of outdoor light into paint and reveals his ability to evoke the sense of relaxation we associate with a carefree day by the water. Not surprisingly, the artist concentrated almost exclusively on beach pictures during the 1910s and 1920s, prompted by the strong market for his work and by the very pleasure he took in painting them. The decision served him well, they became “best sellers,” bringing him a steady income and critical acclaim; as one commentator, put it: “When a man paints a theme as well as Potthast paints seashore scenes, we forgive him to sticking to it to the exclusion of other subjects.”

CL

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