|
|
American overview
post
civil war
pre
civil war
Thomas
Eakins
born: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 25 July 1844
died: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 25 June 1916
Born and raised in Philadelphia. In 1866 he did a three year period of training under Jean-Léon Gérôme. Which didn't last long since Gérôme trotted off to Greece and left his students with Gustave Boulanger. Eakins visited Spain to see the work of Ribera and Velazquez. By the end of 1870 he was back in Philadelphia. Eakins was not interested in Impressionism he was interested in painting "reality". |
|
The Gross Clinic |
The Gross Clinic was painted when Eakins was thirty. He was just back from his Paris studies and he wanted to show the public what he could do. He wanted to show the picture at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia but the selection committee accepted five of his paintings but rejected The Gross Clinic. The picture is a portrait of Dr. Samuel David Gross (and his assistants); he was the leading surgeon, at Jefferson Medical College. This is a charity operation for the treatment of osteomyelitis in a young man. The picture was immediately controversial. Some critics felt nothing better had ever been painted, most felt that while the painting was excellent the subject of the painting should never have been painted and was revolting. Eakins was considered a blunt and socially inept man. He ran what he called a workshop. One art critic found it decidely lower middle class. |
|
The Champion Single Sculls
|
Baseball Practice |
Sailboats Racing |
John Biglin |
| Eakins was fascinated by photography. Eakins bought his first Kodak camera in 1880. He used photography as an aid in his art. He made photos of studio models in the nude. But he also photographed his naked students, men and women, in nature. Sometimes he even photographed himself in the nude with them. (see the swimming hole below, and the photo study for "Arcadia" further down.) |
|
Eakins's students at |
Swimming Hole |
| In 1886 Eakins was forced to resign from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, supposedly because he had pulled a loincloth off a male model in front of a class that included women. In 1895 he was again fired for a similar reason from the Drexel Institute of the Arts. |
|
Cowboy Singing |
Self [Listening] |
Concert Singer |
|
Drifting |
||
|
William Rush Sculpting |
Model |
Photo Study |
| Miss Amilia Van Buren was one of Eakins students at the Academy, and may have been one of the students that were the victims of Eakins supposed harrassment. He painted her picture several years after the incident. She was in her late twenties when the portrait was made, but in the portrait she seems older. |
|
Chaperone |
Miss Amilia Van Buren |
|
|
Professor Henry A. Roland |
Harriet Husson |
Mrs. Eakins |
|
Banjo Player |
Admiral Melville |
Mary Williams |
| Eakins made a friend of Walt Whitman in 1887 and were close friends until the poet's death in 1892. |
Walt Whitman |
American overview
pre
civil war
post civil war
|
![Eakins: [photo] Students at thje Swimming Hole](M/eakins_photo_student_at_the_swimming_hole.1883.jpg)
![Eakins: [photo] Study for "Arcadia"](M/eakins_photo_study_for_arcadia.c1883.jpg)
