Thomas Eakins - part 3

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This is part 3 of a 6-part post on the works of American artist Thomas Eakins. Parts 1 � 4 feature his paintings, parts 5 � 6 his photography. Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) was the most powerful figure painter and portrait painter of his time in America. For biographical notes on Eakins, and for earlier works, see parts 1 and 2.

1888 Cowboys in the Badlands oil on canvas

1888 Portrait of Letitia Wilson Jordan oil on canvas

c1886-90 Miss Van Buren oil on canvas 113.1 x 81.3 cm

Amelia Van Buren, an artist who studied with Eakins, and was called "one of his most gifted pupils.� After she had ceased studying with Eakins, Van Buren frequently stayed as a guest in his Mount Vernon Street home, and likely posed for the painting during one of her visits to Philadelphia. It is possible that the portrait could have been painted during a long stay with Eakins and his wife from December 6, 1888 to August 12, 1889. Another friend and student of Eakins's, Charles Bregler, later wrote "I recall with pleasure looking on for several hours one afternoon while he (Eakins) was painting in this room that beautiful portrait of Miss Van Buren....No conversation took place, his attention being entirely concentrated on the painting."

1889 The Agnew Clinic oil on canvas 215.3 x 300 cm

The Agnew Clinic depicts Dr. Agnew performing a partial mastectomy in a medical amphitheatre. He stands in the left foreground, holding a scalpel. Also present are Dr. J. William White, applying a bandage to the patient; Dr. Joseph Leidy (nephew of paleontologist Joseph Leidy), taking the patient's pulse; and Dr. Ellwood R. Kirby, administering anaesthetic. In the background, Dr. Agnew's nurse, Mary Clymer, and University of Pennsylvania medical school students observe. Eakins placed himself in the painting � he is the rightmost of the pair behind the nurse � although the actual painting of him is attributed to his wife, Susan Macdowell Eakins. The painting is Eakins's largest work. It was commissioned for $750 (equivalent of approximately $19,400 today) in 1889 by three undergraduate classes at the University of Pennsylvania, to honour Dr. Agnew on the occasion of his retirement. The painting was completed quickly, in three months, rather than the year that Eakins took for The Gross Clinic. Eakins carved a Latin inscription into the painting's frame. Translated, it says: "D. Hayes Agnew M.D. The most experienced surgeon, the clearest writer and teacher, the most venerated and beloved man."

Dr. Hayes Agnew

1889 Preparatory sketch for The Agnew Clinic

c1889 Study of Dr. Agnew for the Agnew Clinic

1889 Portrait of Samuel Murray

-->Samuel Murray, the 11th of 12 children of an Irish stone cutter and his wife, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and educated in the city's parochial schools. In September 1886, at age 17, he entered the seven-month-old Art Students' League of Philadelphia, where he studied under Eakins.He soon became a favoured student, then Eakins's assistant, and was listed as an instructor in 1892.The two artists shared a studio at 1330 Chestnut Street from 1892 to about 1900, sometimes painting and sculpting from the same model.

c1889 Portrait of Douglass Morgan Hall oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cm

1890 Dr. Horatio C. Wood oil on canvas

1890 The Art Student aka Portrait of James Wright oil on canvas

1890-92 The Concert Singer oil on canvas 191.4 x 138.1 cm

The Concert Singer depicts the singer Weda Cook (1867�1937). The work, commenced in 1890 and completed in 1892, was Eakins's first full-length portrait of a woman. It is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There is another portrait of Weda Cook from 1891 below. Eakins also painted Weda Cook�s husband Stanley Addicks. See �The Pianist (Stanley Addicks)� 1896 below.

Weda Cook was also the subject of several photographs by Eakins at around this time � an example here, more to come in part 6 of this post:

1892 Weda Cook platinum print 24.8 x 10.8 cm copy

c1890 Clara oil on canvas

1891 Weda Cook oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cm

c1890 Cowboy Singing watercolour

Cowboy Singing obviously relates to the oil below of approximately two years later:

1892 Home Ranch oil on canvas

c1891 Portrait of William H. MacDowell oil on canvas 71.1 x 55.9 cm

c1891 Portrait of William H. MacDowell watercolour on paper

William H. Macdowell was a Philadelphia engraver and later Eakins' father-in-law.

c1891 Mr. MacDowell albumen silver print

1895 Portrait of Frank Hamilton Cushing oil on canvas 228.6 x 152.4 cm

1895 Portrait of Maud Cook oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cm

c1895 Portrait of Charles Linford, the Artist oil on canvas

1896 Portrait of Harrison S. Morris oil on canvas

Harrison S. Morris (1856-1948) served as the Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1892 to 1905. He was one of this country's first professional arts administrators, and his impact on the institution was profound. Under Morris the Academy sponsored many important exhibitions including four landmark displays of photographic art, and one-man shows by William M. Chase, Robert Henri, Everett Shinn and Edward Redfield. In addition, he led the Academy in some of its most enlightened collecting, acquiring, among many others, Winslow Homer's The Fox Hunt, Maxfield Parrish's Old King Cole, William M. Chase's Lady with a White Shawl, Cecilia Beaux's New England Woman, Henry O. Tanner's Nicodemus and Childe Hassam's Cat Boats, Newport Harbor.

Active in numerous art organizations, Morris later worked as a magazine editor. He was a prolific author of fiction, poetry, artist biographies and articles, and in 1930 penned his autobiography, Confessions in Art. While strongly critical of the Academy (having departed in a stormy row with the board), his account revealed much about art-world and Academy dynamics in the early twentieth century.

In 1891 Morris encouraged Thomas Eakins to return to the Academy exhibitions after the artist's dismissal five years earlier. In 1896 he advocated acquisition of our first Eakins painting, The Cello Player, and sat for one of Eakins's greatest portraits, a work acquired for the permanent collection in 2000.