John Ellsworth Weis

John Ellsworth Weis (American, 1892–1962)

This work is offered in a fluted giltwood frame

Cincinnati artist John Weis was born in Powell County, Indiana. While John was young, the family moved first to Higginsport, Ohio, and later to Norwood, Ohio. At the age of 14, his father died, and to help support his family and his art study, he worked at various jobs, including a sign painter, soda fountain jerk and an electric coil winder, while attending night classes at the Cincinnati Academy. He was eventually able to enroll full-time, and in 1917 was offered a faculty position. A Cincinnati newspaper said of Weis in 1917, that he “is more at home in the painting of snow than in any other field.” Although Weis is best known for his impressionist landscapes, he was also an accomplished portraitist and painted local luminaires. During World War I, Weis had served with the One Hundred and Fifty-Ninth Artillery unit in France. After the war, he returned to teach at the Academy, but was determined to return to France to paint its scenic coasts and picturesque villages. In the summer of 1921, Weis, along with student John Myers, fulfilled his dream and left for a three-month sojourn in France, exhibiting at the Paris Salon. Upon their return to Cincinnati, his work was exhibited at the Art Museum in 1921 and 1923. Weis also traveled widely in the United States, including Taos, New Mexico; Woodstock, New York; Rockport, Gloucester and Provincetown, Massachusetts; and Booth Bay Harbor, Maine. In 1957, he retired from the Academy after 38 years. Weis was a member of the Cincinnati Art Club (president, 1927–1928) and Cincinnati MacDowell Club. He exhibited at the Cincinnati Art Club; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annual (1925, 1926, 1927, 1930, 1933); Art Institute of Chicago (1926, 1928, 1930); and Corcoran Gallery biennial (1928, 1932).

Signed J.E Weis (lower right)