Beach Scene, Coney Island

Like so many artists of his generation, Edward Potthast followed his art school training (in his case at Cincinnati’s McMicken School of Design), with a journey abroad. His European voyages introduced him not only to contemporary French painting, but to the American artists abroad who were absorbing new approaches to landscape painting. Working en plein air in art colonies based in villages such as Grèz, Potthast lightened his palette and loosened his brushstroke until he became a recognized American Impressionist in the 1890s. Among his most evergreen of subjects are the beaches of Long Island enlivened by splashing bathers at leisure. In Beach Scene, Coney Island, a central male figure leaps into the surf while others wade into the waves more guardedly, protected by their bathing caps. The man’s joyous and carefree action—leaving his bathing cap on shore—embodies the youthful spirit of Coney Island.