Water Lilies

It was a snowy, cold afternoon on the day I visited the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. I stepped inside, clacking the snow off of my boots, and was immediately greeted by paintings of ships and beach scenes that quickly erased my mind of the tundra I had just stepped out of. I was immediately taken aback to see that the museum consisted of six galleries, which was much larger than I had anticipated. I have lived in Winona for over a year and a half and I am so surprised I hadn’t heard about this museum earlier, there is so much to learn about Winona, a city I thought I knew so well, and this museum taught me so much about it. I gazed upon paintings of ships, one after another, each one unique and different from the last. Although, it wasn’t until one of the last paintings I looked at that I finally found the piece I knew I wanted to pursue.

The painting is named Water Lilies, and it consists of four young girls playing in the water on the beach. I examined it for the longest time, noticing every detail and brush stroke. I walked away from it after a while but was still thinking about why this painting was here and why I was meant to see it. With each painting I observed next, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about Water Lilies. The pastel colors used were unlike any other painting I had seen in the museum. It didn’t hit me until I had seen every painting in each gallery, no other painting caught my attention like Water Lilies did. I strolled back over to the painting for a second time before one of the museum employees noticed me and asked me if I needed any help. I told her I was in awe of the painting, and she proceeded to tell me that it was her favorite piece in the museum, as well. The thing that caught my attention the most was when she pointed out a small American Red Cross symbol at the bottom of the painting. That is when I knew this painting was deeper than four young girls just playing at the beach, and I had to find out why.

Water Lilies is a famous beach scene painting that is a completely handmade, oil on canvas painting. It is painted with thick, prominent brushstrokes that give the painting a distinct, original look. Water Lilies was painted in 1917 by Edward Henry Potthast, an American Impressionist painter. He was born in 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and had loved art since a young age. He started studying art at the age of twelve at Cincinnati’s new McMicken School of Design, and later studied in Europe at the Royal Academy, and finished his European tour by studying in Paris for a month. In his early years as an artist, Potthast traveled between Cincinnati and Europe very consistently, and became a wonderful Impressionist and it did not go unnoticed. His paintings mainly consisted of light, peaceful scenes including sunshine, people frolicking on beaches and leisurely outdoor settings. His artwork was first displayed in the Cincinnati Art Museum and he gained a lot of positive attention in his hometown. As much as he loved his city, he made the decision to move to New York City, so he could paint scenes of Coney Island and Far Rockaway. “Edward Potthast spent many days at the beach painting scenes of children and their families. Through his artwork, he captured the peacefulness of the children,” according to the Biography of Edward Henry Potthast. Potthast resided in New York until his death in 1927. To this day, he is one of the top beach scene painters in America, and his paintings are rather costly.

My initial reaction to Water Lilies was that it is a very joyful and bright painting. The pastel colors give the painting a light-hearted feel. Also, the girls wearing their vintage dresses and oversized bows while wading in the glass-like water portray such innocence and playfulness in the painting. The cheerful details in the painting take me back to simpler times. One time in particular was visiting my older half-sister who lives in Florida near Daytona Beach. We walked to the beach on a Sunday afternoon after church, just us two, and I remember how much I loved the feeling of the warm sand between my toes, considering it was winter and freezing back home in Minnesota. This painting is almost a spitting image of what I remember from the beach that day. I visited my sister when I was about six years old, which is roughly how old the four girls in the painting look. The girls in the painting look like they spontaneously decided to play in the water, seeing that they had dresses on and bows in their hair. Neither my sister or I were in our swimsuits, we were still wearing our church dresses from the morning, lifting the skirt of our dresses above our knees just like the girls in the painting. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky that day, and the pastel colors from the painting resemble a bright, sunny day, just like what I remember.

To me, the thick, sweeping brushstrokes Potthast used in this painting resemble wind, also noticing that their dresses seem to be flowing in a breeze. I think this was a brilliant technique to use, because it allows the viewer to nearly feel the ocean breeze as they look at this painting. Being at the beach with my sister is a distant memory that I don’t often think about, but this painting truly brought those memories back to me. Paintings that are powerful enough to be able to take you back to a specific memory or moment of your life are incredible, and Water Lilies was capable of doing that for me.

Water Lilies has a much more complex background than one might expect. When looking at the lower left corner of the painting, you can see a small American Red Cross logo. The painting wasn’t originally intended for the American Red Cross but was donated to the organization shortly after being completed. “As indicated in the signature at the lower left, the painting was donated to the American Red Cross in 1917,” according to Jonathan Boos. Edward Henry Potthast made the decision to donate his painting to this organization for the soldiers fighting in World War I. He thought that it would lift their spirits when they felt like giving up. He wanted it to be something beautiful to look at during the ugly, horrifying events taking place. Water Lilies did just that, copies upon copies of the painting were made, sold and hung around towns and in the trenches where the soldiers lived during the war. Although the painting was not of a real photograph, it was something that the soldiers could look at to remember what they were fighting for. It captured a free and relaxing moment that could transport the soldiers’ minds to something more peaceful than their reality for a while.

Art can be very moving for people. In the past, I had never been very interested or involved in art, until I came across Water Lilies. I can confidently say that Water Lilies has opened my mind and changed my perspective on what art is really about. Art has a deeper meaning than what is on the surface. I realized while studying this painting and the many others at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, that paintings are like reading a story with no words. They allow you to interpret what it means to you and write the story for yourself. This painting brought out a new appreciation in me for the time, effort and thought that goes into making pieces like these. It challenged my mind and intrigued me so much that I just had to know the background and purpose of this painting. It made me reflect on the past while it also challenged me to become more educated on events like World War I. I never expected my trip to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum to interest me as much as it did, but it left me with a new perspective on art that I hope to never lose.