ABSTRACT
In 1877 Thomas Eakins completed a canvas depicting the first internationally renowned American sculptor. William Rush Carving his Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River (Fig. 3.1) controversially showed his fellow Philadelphian working from a living model as he carved his Water Nymph and Bittern fountain figure in pine (1809) to mark the new Philadelphia Water Works at Fairmount Park. Rush had modeled his “Nymph” of the Schuylkill, whose naked form is suggested beneath the curves and folds of the wet garments that cling to her, on Louisa Vanuxem, the daughter of a prominent merchant. Eakins has the model pose nude for Rush, placing her under guard of a chaperone to suggest the required propriety. But Eakins’s artistic license is plainly visible in the discrepancy between the nude model and the draped figure of the sculpture, which reflects Rush’s original work: it is most unlikely that Miss Vanuxem posed in the nude for Rush, though Eakins’s daring speaks to Rush’s own artistic license in even suggesting a nude form.
