MWW Artwork of the Day (4/11/16)Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916)John Biglin in a Single Cell I (c

MWW Artwork of the Day (4/11/16)
Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916)
John Biglin in a Single Cell I (c. 1873)
Watercolor on off-white wove paper, 49.2 x 63.2 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Fletcher Fund)

Eakins was yet another native of Philadelphia, the city that produced most of America’s artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries. An influential teacher as well as pioneering photographer, he is today recognized as the most important American realist painter of his era. Eakins had done the obligatory visit to Paris, studying art there for nearly four years, but, aside from a lasting appreciation for the works of the French realists Courbet, Corot, and Gêrome, his stay there left no imprint on his work, which was dedicated to portraying American subjects in a distinctly American style. For Eakins, this style was rooted in a scientific analysis of the things he saw before him, his ego taking a back seat to his empirical vision. He thus eschewed the metaphysical overtones of the Hudson River School and had nothing but contempt for paintings full of allegories or moralistic exhortations. He was the first artist to use photography for preparatory studies of a subject he would paint. That they were often nude studies eventually led to scandal and dismissal from his teaching post at the Philadelphia Academy of Art. His artistic output was evenly divided between portraits of well-known contemporaries (e.g., Walt Whitman) and scenes taken from American life, like the rowing picture above.

The Schuylkill River runs through the heart of Philadelphia. In the 1870s rowing caught on there in a big way among its middle-class citizens. Rowing clubs sprang up overnight on its banks, light racing craft swarmed the river on weekends, annual competitions were held, the winners becoming local heroes. Eakins, himself a skilled oarsmen, celebrated these new champions in a series of paintings, in much the same manner and spirit as the ancient Greeks memorialized their Olympic heroes in sculpture. The scientific precision with which the rower’s arm muscles and the ripple effect of the oars on the water are drawn are good examples of Eakins’ artistic credo in action.

More of Eakins’ paintings and watercolors appear in the MWW exhibit/gallery:
* Americana IV: Democratic Vistas - Thomas Eakins & Winslow Homer