At the turn of the 20th century, Connecticut played a leading role in the development of American Impressionism, as artists portrayed outdoor settings in intimate, sunny, colorful works that celebrated nature and often familial love, especially between mothers and children. Edward Potthast, born in Cincinnati in 1857, developed a special love for the seashore, studied art in Antwerp, Munich, and Paris, settled in New York City in the 1890s, and at first painted figures, landscapes, and seascapes like those of his contemporaries. By 1910 he was painting brightly colored, vigorously brushed scenes of children playing on public beaches at Coney Island and Rockaway, and these popular works led him to spend the rest of his life traveling the New England coast painting children and women enjoying the ocean shore. Although he never painted at Sherwood Island, the intimate view there suited the kind of scene he favored. His beach paintings presented what were then modern females enjoying sunlight and ocean breeze in attire that now seems formal, reflecting changing American attitudes toward recreation as the 20th century approached. Sherwood Island, the first site in Connecticut designated a state park, began in 1914 when the State Park and Forest Commission bought a five-acre strip of beach and gradually expanded it to 234 acres of beach, uplands, and salt marshes. The park was further improved, especially in the 1950s, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built jetties and extended the two beaches to provide more than 6,000 feet of waterfront. Preserved despite opposition from advocates of real estate development, the park remains a public place for swimming and picnicking and helps show why Impressionists were drawn to Connecticut's shore and countryside.