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Indepth Arts News:
"Thomas Eakins: American Realist"
2001-10-04 until 2001-01-06
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia, PA,
USA
With his life and work deeply rooted in Philadelphia, Thomas
Eakins (1844-1916) emerged as one of the most outstanding
American artists of the 19th century. In celebration of its 125th
anniversary in 2001, the Museum will present a spectacular
loan exhibition surveying, for the first time in nearly 20 years,
the career of this enormously challenging, controversial, and
influential artist. On view will be some 60 major oil paintings,
together with examples of Eakins's work in watercolor, drawing
and sculpture, selected from the Museum's own unrivaled
collections and borrowed from public and private collections
nationwide.
Eakins was one of the earliest American artists to
make photography an integral part of his creative process. For
the first time in a major retrospective of his work, Thomas
Eakins: American Realist will include some 120 photographs
by the artist and his circle.
Eakins was among the first generation of American artists who
flocked to Paris for artistic training. Unlike his contemporaries,
however, he was determined to apply Beaux-Arts techniques
to subjects that were distinctly American and reflected his own
experience. Eakins's preoccupation with athletics is reflected in
his famous scenes of rowing, sailing, fishing and boxing,
among other sports. Some of the finest and most celebrated of
these - Max Schmitt in a Single Scull, Starting Out After Rail,
Shad Fishing at Gloucester on the Delaware River, and
Between Rounds, among others - will be shown in the
exhibition.
Eakins is equally well-known for his portraits that, as deeply
moving character studies, often reflect the complexities of American life at the turn of the century. His two
controversial paintings of famous surgeons at work in their operating amphitheaters - The Gross Clinic and The
Agnew Clinic - will be included. Also on view will be a group of other outstanding portraits, including Miss Van
Buren, Professor Henry A. Rowland, The Thinker, and Mrs. William D. Frishmuth.
The last comprehensive survey of Eakins's work was mounted by the Museum in 1982; it traveled to the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston. Since that time, there has been a great deal of exciting new scholarship about Eakins and his
times, and many previously unknown works by him have surfaced. Thomas Eakins: American Realist will introduce
a new generation of the public to this great painter and key figure in American art.
IMAGE:
Thomas Eakins, 1874
Starting Out After Rail
Oil on canvas mounted on masonite
24 1/4 x 19 7/8
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Hayden Collection
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