John Ottis Adams (Indiana, 1851-1927)
John Adams was a landscape, genre, and portrait painter who was a member of the Hoosier Group of Indiana painters. Adams was, along with William Forsyth and Theodore Steele, committed to depicting his own native region. These artists were for many years the premier impressionist painters of the Midwest. Much of their subject matter was along the Muscatatuck and Whitewater Rivers and around the Indiana communities of Brookville and Vernon. Adams was born in Amity, Indiana, and in the mid 1880s, went to Munich, Germany with Theodore Steele, where he followed the regular routine of the Royal Academy. Adams also studied with J. Frank Currier at Schleisheim, Germany and with John Parker in London. After studying in England and Germany, Adams opened an art school in Muncie, 1887…He was instrumental in the establishment of the John Herron Art Institute in 1901, and was an instructor of drawing and painting there until his retirement in 1906. He married Winifred Brady Adams in 1898. Adams divided his time among homes in Southern Indiana, Michigan, and Florida, accompanied many times by fellow artist and friend, Otto Stark.
Information courtesy of Wickliffe & Associates, Auctioneers Inc.