Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was an American photographer, sculptor, teacher, and Realist painter. Although he did not earn recognition during his lifetime, today, he is regarded as one of the most fundamental artists in American art history. Eakins was heavily interested in anatomy, in the details of body structure and its movement. The artist was also a photographer, taking shots as preliminary studies for his paintings. Thomas Eakins was a precursor of a Realist trend that continued later in American painting until Abstract Expressionism.
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Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins
Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was an American photographer, sculptor, teacher, and Realist painter. Although he did not earn recognition during his lifetime, today, he is regarded as one of the most fundamental artists in American art history. Eakins was heavily interested in anatomy, in the details of body structure and its movement. The artist was also a photographer, taking shots as preliminary studies for his paintings. Thomas Eakins was a precursor of a Realist trend that continued later in American painting until Abstract Expressionism.
Upbringing
Thomas C. Eakins was born on July 25, 1844, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the eldest and the only male of four siblings. His father, Benjamin Eakins, was a writing master and calligrapher who supported his family comfortably due to well-thought investments. Benjamin's father was a weaver and grew up in the rural region, moving to Philadelphia some years before Thomas was born.
Eakins was a curious child. By observing his father at work, young Thomas manifested his artistic prowess at a relatively young age. He displayed abilities in perspective, precise line drawing. He also knew how to use a grid to carefully lay out a composition, which would later prove to be applied in his artworks.
Early Life and Sports
Eakins was also an athletic child who enjoyed swimming, rowing, ice skating, gymnastics, sailing, and wrestling; activities that the artist would later depict in his paintings and encourage his students to practice as well. This interest in the body and human movement can be perceived in his artworks, in which he explored nudity and anatomy with great attention to detail.
The American artist studied at the Central High School in Philadelphia, the foremost public school in arts and applied science. There, young Thomas would excel in mechanical drawing. He also met Charles Lewis Fussell, who became an artist and lifelong friend. They studied together again at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Artistic Education
Eakins enrolled at the Academy in 1861. During this time, he focused on the constants of his career: drawing structured bodies. The artist later attended anatomy and dissection classes at Jefferson Medical College between 1864 and 1865. For a period, Eakins followed his father's profession as a teacher, and due to his interest in human anatomy, he even considered becoming a surgeon.
Between 1866 and 1869, Eakins studied in Europe under several artists. One of his most noteworthy teachers from this period is the distinguished Orientalist painter Jean-Leon Gerome - Eakins was his second American pupil. Gerome embodied the last efforts of Academic painting to survive as a dignified art form and was known for his virtuoso ability to depict the body's textures. The painter's admiration for the nude figure was made notable in his correspondence to his family, in which he stated that he considered it to be the closest thing to the truth.
Thomas Eakins also attended Leon Bonnat's studio. A brief period in Spain consolidated the artist's admiration for the Realist depictions of artists such as Jusepe de Ribera and Diego Velazquez. After this contact with the Spaniards, Eakins' work got notably more colorful, a trait that wasn't present in his prior work.
This change can be felt in artworks such as A Street Scene in Seville, featuring dimensions of 159.4 × 106.7 cm, the artist's first large painting. The masterpiece took about three months to finish, and he paid a local family to pose for him. While it doesn't have the level of detail that the American painter reached later, it's still an impressive work for a young artist, as it captures the vivacity of the scene, working with a green and red contrast.
Back in the US
Eakins returned to Philadelphia in 1869, where he remained for the rest of his life. He continued to study human anatomy at Jefferson Medical College. The painter decided to make a series of watercolors and oils based on rowing. Sports as a motif for a painting was very unusual in his time, but his technique was thoroughly admired. The most famous work of the series is Max Schmitt in a Single Scull.
The works from this series represent Eakins' first documented sales, which helped gather impulse the public interest in his art. Along with the depictions of sports scenes, he dedicated himself to interiors as well, portraying everyday scenes in a detailed manner. Paintings such as Kathrin, Elizabeth at the Piano, and Home Scene are examples of his productions from this period. In 1874, Eakins got engaged to Kathrin Cromwell.
Teaching at the Academy
In 1878, the artist was appointed as a professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Before that, he did volunteer work. Eakins's pedagogy was seen as unusual at the time. He focused on model drawing, ignoring the studies of casts from famous sculptures, promoting photography for a better understanding of human anatomy, and had his pupils initiate painting as soon as possible.
The contributions that Thomas Eakins brought to the Pennsylvania Academy were considered quite revolutionary for the time. His work helped the institution revitalize itself and stray away from Academic dogmatism. The Academy was considered the most forward-thinking institution of its time. The painter accepted all kinds of students, including artists who worked with illustration, engraving, and other aspirations.
Rise and Fall
1882, Eakins became the director of the Academy. However, he was later dismissed from the institution due to his insistence on using nude models for painting. Even though Eakins advocated for women to have classes with models as well, they were required to use loincloths. In one of these classes, he undressed the model.
His liberty while working with the human body didn't please his superiors. It is said that the artist even undressed in front of Amelia Van Buren when questioned about the movement of the pelvis. Ultimately, Eakins was forced to resign from his post.
His resignation was a traumatic event and even had health implications on the artist as he felt deeply humiliated. To lend a helping hand, the students who were close to him decided to fund the Art Student's League of Philadelphia due to his forced resignation. The League existed for seven years, and even though it never achieved the massive structure of the Academy, it represented the materialization of the artist's methods.
After his resignation from the Academy, Eakins was expelled from the Philadelphia Sketch Club, but this time because of his brother-in-law. This confusion led to a feud in his family, which included his sister and his father, who stood by his side. The painter was overwhelmed and decided to travel to a Dakota ranch, where he was able to rest and recover while painting scenes of rural life.
Later Years, Death, and Legacy
The last years of the painter were bittersweet. His private life didn't cease with the polemics. One of his students thought that Eakins was going to leave his wife for her. Later she was hospitalized in a mental institution. One of his niece that was being treated for mental illness committed suicide after saying he had abused her. On the other hand, the Pennsylvania Academy offered him a medal as an honorary award, and he kept flourishing in commercial aspects.
Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins died on June 25, 1916, in Philadelphia. Sadly, his fame was entirely posthumous, being widely neglected during his lifetime. Besides becoming one of the most important figures of American art history, Eakins was also a gifted photographer. The artist, with his photography Pole Vault, 1885, executed an early experiment with high-speed photography that would further expand the knowledge of the human anatomy and movement.
Eakins' production achieved a significant net worth. In 2003, his Cowboys in the Badlands was sold by over five million dollars.
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