Otho Cushing

Otho Williams McD. Cushing (October 22, 1870 – October 13, 1942) His sometimes-homoerotic style, often featuring classical figures, was influenced by Frederic Leighton, J. C. Leyendecker, and Aubrey Beardsley.

Early life Otho Cushing was born in Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland on October 22, 1870.

He spent his youth in different cities where his father was stationed; in 1880 the family lived in Providence, Rhode Island.

Career He returned to Boston in September 1893 and became drawing instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He published drawings in Life magazine. Around 1900, he returned to Paris, where he became artistic director of the European edition of the New York Herald.

When he returned to the United States, he joined the art staff of Life and lived in New York. His drawings were "highly stylized, and, at first, depicted handsome young men and women in Greek or modern costumes."

In 1917, he left Life and joined the Army Air Service, serving as a captain in charge of "supervising the camouflaging of American airfields on the Western Front". Several of his posters and drawings deal with the American involvement in World War 1. After the war, he retired to New Rochelle and embraced a career as watercolorist.

Cushing, who did not marry, was a member of an artist's club known as Le Cercle d'Amis, and was friends with Charles Allan Gilbert. In 1908, Cushing and Gilbert threw a costume party for Le Cercle d'Amis at Gilbert's studio, 17 West 35th Street. He was also friends with Dr. Alfred Stillman II, who gave a luncheon at the clubhouse of the National Golf Links of America in Southampton, New York in 1937.

After the War, he lived with his younger brother, architect Nicholas Cooke Cushing, at 4 Harbor Lane in New Rochelle. After a month's illness, he died at the New Rochelle Hospital on October 13, 1942.

Collections The Metropolitan Museum of Art Musée d'Orsay