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Possibly Amy Otis

1863-1950

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  1. Lady Lilac by Possibly Amy Otis, Image 1.

    Possibly Amy Otis

    Lady Lilac, c. 1910

    Watercolor, gouache, ink

    NFS

Otis was a native of Sherwood, New York, and was born to a family of Quakers. Her parents had migrated to the area at different times from Massachusetts, and had seven other children, six surviving; among them was Susan, who later became a noted physician in Cayuga County. Her grandfather was Job Otis,[1] who with his wife Deborah was a leader of the Otisites, and whose house may still be seen today in Sherwood.[2] Amy studied at Cornell University and the Philadelphia School of Design for Women,[3] and was a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[4] She also studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris. For some years she was active as a portraitist in Philadelphia, where she also taught art at Miss Capen's School for Girls from 1911 to 1914.[3] In that year[5] she began work a professor at Wheaton College in Massachusetts,[3] ultimately becoming the head of the art department.[6] Otis retired from Wheaton in 1932.[5] She designed the seal for the school's Alumnae Association while she was there.[7] After leaving Wheaton she taught for a time at Wells College, where she was at one point acting head of the Department of Art.[8]

During her career Otis exhibited work throughout the United States. She was a member of the Philadelphia Water Color Club, the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters, and The Plastic Club, and was a sister of Kappa Kappa Gamma.[3] Among her pupils at Wheaton was the future Precisionist Molly Luce.[9]

Otis was the aunt of painter Elizabeth Otis Dunn and illustrator Samuel Davis Otis,[4] and was a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Howland;[3] numerous other ancestors were prominent in the history of Scituate, Massachusetts.[1] A lecture series at Wheaton was established in her honor[10] by the Class of 1931 after her death.[5] A miniature watercolor-on-ivory portrait of Dorothy Gifford, titled A College Girl, is currently owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[11]