THE SWIMMING HOLE, CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK
signed E Potthast lower right; signed Edward H Potthast, titled The Swimming Hole and inscribed with the artist's address in New York on the stretcher
oil on canvas
39.5 x 49.5cm; 15 1/2 x 19 1/2in
57.5 x 67.5cm; 22 3/4 x 26 1/2in (framed)

Property from a Private Collection, England

Provenance
Davis & Langdale, New York

Potthast's painting of three boys taking a dip in one of the pools in Central Park, New York breaks with his signature beach scenes to embrace the fresh water and surrounding lush greenery of the city's new recreational space established in the late 1850s. Central Park was the first public space to be laid out by the celebrated landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted introduced the distinctive rock formations that are such a feature of the park and which are prominent in the current composition. There are similarities in both palette and subject matter with Potthast's immediate contemporary and fellow American John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), whilst the darker hues are reminiscent of Potthast's days at the Munich Akademie.

With the end of the Civil War in 1865 America enjoyed an extended period of economic prosperity. New found wealth gave rise to an affluent and leisured middle class with time on their hands to enjoy themselves. With increased possibilities of travelling to Europe too, American collectors were instinctively drawn to Impressionist painting, appreciating the swift energetic brushstrokes and light-filled canvases. Beyond France the style was adopted by a host of other painters, most of whom had been schooled in different ateliers in Paris and artists' colonies around the country, amongst them the influential American painter Childe Hassam (1859-1935) and the Spanish impressionist Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923). Like these and so many of his contemporaries, Potthast sought to capture in his work the leisure time of America's newfound wealth creators.