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A Holiday
Edward Henry Potthast (American, 1857–1927)
c. 1915
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 76.4 × 101.8 cm (30 1/8 × 40 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Friends of American Art Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
A Holiday depicts one of the beach scenes for which Edward Henry Potthast was best known. Capturing a quintessentially Impressionist setting—a sun-dappled landscape with women and children enjoying leisure time—the artist also utilized the movement’s technique of broken brushwork and the use of brilliant colors. In the painting the children converse and frolic at the water’s edge on a windy day. There is nothing threatening about the waves or wind; indeed, Potthast’s paintings were both praised and criticized for presenting nothing other than a pleasant, innocent, and optimistic view.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
