Edward Potthast worked as an apprentice to a lithographer from the age of 16, and, except for a period in Europe, continued to work as a commercial lithographer until the age of 39. He studied at night classes at the McMickin School of Design, Cincinnati, and at academies in Antwerp, Munich and Paris from 1882 to 1887, where he was influenced by the work of Robert Vonnoh and the Irish Impressionist Roderic O'Conor.

Potthast’s early works show the dark tonalities of the Munich school, but he began using brighter colours in 1896 after moving to New York. From 1915 he painted ocean beaches near New York City, and is best known for his scenes of women and children bathing or lounging on the beach, as in the oils Afternoon Fun, or Ring around the Rosy (around 1915). He also painted scenes of the New England coast, with the ocean breaking on rocky shores. Potthast produced illustrations for magazines such as Scribner's and Century. His work was characterised by a carefully selected viewpoint, the elimination of distracting detail, thick pigment, little facial expression in subjects, and contrasting blocks of colour. Most of his paintings are undated.

Retrospectives of his work include the Chapellier Galleries, New York; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC (1973); Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts (1968); and the Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York (1962).