biografía de Bass OTIS (1784-1861)

Lugar de nacimiento: Bridgewater, MA

Lugar de defunción: Philadelphia, PA

Direcciones: Primarily in Philadelphia, PA

Profesión: Portrait painter, lithographer, inventor

Estudios: apprenticed to a scythe-maker in Bridgewater, MA, before 1805, after which he may have learned painting from a coach painter; John Wesley Jarvis in NYC, 1808; possibly with Gilbert Stuart in Boston; influenced by Thomas Sully, with whom he may have studied in Phila., 1812.

Exposiciones: PAFA, 1812-59; NAD; 1826; Brooklyn AA, 1872; PAFA Ann., 1905

Asociaciones: Columbian Society of Artists, Phila.

Obra: American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA; NY Hist. Soc.; PAFA; BMFA; Virginia Hist. Soc.

Comentarios: In 1808, he became a professional portrait painter, working in the studio of John Wesley Jarvis in NYC. Otis was a prolific artist and is known to have painted over 200 portraits in one year. In 1812, he moved to Philadelphia, and in 1819 he produced "House and Trees at Waterside," which is generally considered to be the first lithograph executed in America (appeared in Analectic Magazine July, 1819). He lived in Philadelphia until 1845, although he did travel extensively to fulfill commissions, and spent 1839 in Wilmington, DE, and some time in Baltimore. Moved to NYC in 1845, and a year or two later to Boston. He returned to Phila. in 1858. He was also the inventor of the perspective protractor.

Fuentes: G&W; DAB; Rutledge, PA; Phila. CD 1813-45, 1858-61; Swan, BA; Boston BD 1847-57; Cowdrey, NAD; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Peters, America on Stone. See also NYHS Catalogue, 1974; Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 1, 304; 300 Years of American Painting vol. 1, 97; Reps, 25 -26 (with repro. of first lithograph); Wright, Artists in Virgina Before 1900;Pierce and Slautterback, 2-3 (say he studied with G. Stuart); Falk, Exh. Record Series.