Otis, Bass

Otis, Bass, 1784–1861, American portrait painter and mezzotint engraver, b. Bridgewater, Mass. He probably produced the first lithograph in America, a portrait of the Rev. Abner Kneeland, in a volume of his lectures (1818). Otis practiced portrait painting in New York City and Philadelphia, reproducing some of his works in mezzotint. Among his best-known likenesses are those of Thomas Jefferson, Stephen Girard, and James Madison. His only known genre composition, Interior of a Smithy, is in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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