John Ellsworth Weis

(American, 1892 - 1962) 

Biography

Born in Powell County, Kentucky in 1892. He moved at a very young age with his family to Higginsport, Ohio and then when he was age nine to Norwood, Ohio. The early death of his father and the struggle of his mother to raise the family were lasting influences on the young man who at age fourteen enrolled in night classes at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. He worked during the days at many jobs including at a lithography shop, as a sign painter, a soda fountain clerk, and an electric coil winder until he was able to enroll full time in the Academy. His teachers Frank Duveneck, James Roy Hopkins, Lewis Henry Meakin, and Herman Wessel, were so impressed that he was offered a job on the faculty when he was age twenty-two. He held this position for thirty-eight years.

He spent time serving in the military during World War I, and traveled widely in Europe, spending much time in Paris in the 1920s and exhibited at the Paris Salon. There he associated with prominent Cincinnati artists Elizabeth Nourse and James Roy Hopkins. He also traveled widely in the United States including Taos, New Mexico; Provincetown, Woodstock, Rockport, Gloucester, Massachusetts; and Booth Bay Harbor, Maine. He married Sally Cuthbert, an Academy student who became a prominent instructor at the College of Design at the University of Cincinnati.

His paintings. are recognized for their rich color, atmospheric light and strong draftsmanship. He is best known for impressionistic landscapes, portraits, and sill lifes. His landscapes are usually scenes from Ohio, New England, France, and the American West.

His work appeared in major national exhibitions, including the annual shows of the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Cincinnati Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Butler Institute of American Art, and the Cincinnati Art Club where he served as president fro 1927-1928. He was also represented by Closson’s. and had a retrospective exhibition at Mary Ran Gallery in 1986.

John E. Weis was a member of the MacDowell Society, JAFA (Just a Few Artists) Society, Cincinnati Art Club, Literary Club of Cincinnati, Duveneck Society of Painters & sculptors, and the Rockport Art Association.

In 1957, Parkinson's Disease forced him to retire from the Art Academy, and in 1962, he died from a fall at his home. He had been a vital part of the Cincinnati community for forty years.

Today John E. Weis is regarded as one of the leading Ohio regional painters of the 20th Century. His paintings continue to be sold at galleries and sold at auction.
 

works available