On the Beach
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Edward Potthast is remembered for his bright and breezy scenes of turn-of-the-century beachgoers. His art underwent a dramatic change about 1910 as he abandoned an early focus on rural figure subjects for scenic landscape and leisure scenes, enlivening his brushwork and brightening his palette in a shift toward an Impressionist aesthetic. From that time on, he produced numerous paintings of pleasure seekers at the seaside (often Boston's North Shore), chronicling a leisure activity newly popular among city dwellers liberated from restrictive social mores and increasingly aware of the salutary effects of fresh air and physical exercise. In 1915 the Brooklyn Museum made a very progressive purchase of two of these paintings, displayed on the screen--Bathers and On the Beach. Rocks and Sea is a late work, reflecting Potthast's turn to decorative images of more remote coastlines that was perhaps influenced by Childe Hassam's Impressionist interpretations of the New England coast like Poppies on the Isles of Shoals (displayed nearby.)
Caption
Edward Henry Potthast American, 1857–1927. On the Beach, ca. 1913. Oil on canvas, 12 7/16 x 16 in. (31.6 x 40.7 cm) frame: 20 7/8 × 24 3/8 × 1 3/4 in. (53 × 61.9 × 4.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, John B. Woodward Memorial Fund, 15.291. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 15.291_SL3.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
On the Beach
Date
ca. 1913
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
12 7/16 x 16 in. (31.6 x 40.7 cm) frame: 20 7/8 × 24 3/8 × 1 3/4 in. (53 × 61.9 × 4.4 cm)
Signatures
Signed lower right: "E. Potthast"
Credit Line
John B. Woodward Memorial Fund
Accession Number
15.291
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at
