ABSTRACT
Eakins, Thomas (1844-1916). American artist and teacher. Eakins, the son of a writing-master, was born in Philadelphia. He attended the Central High School in the city, graduating in 1861, then studied drawing at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and anatomy at Jefferson Medical College, 1861-6. Eakins wished to increase his proficiency in the arts and enrolled at the École des Beaux Arts, Paris, 1866, working with the painter Jéan Léon Géróme and the sculptor Augustin Alexandre Dumont. In 1869, his health gave way and Eakins spent a year in Spain. On his return to Philadelphia in 1870, he embarked on a study of anatomy at Jefferson Medical College, and was appointed dean of the faculty, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1873, where he lectured and painted. Eakins’ best-known picture, The Clinic of Doctor Gross, 1875, depicts the carrying out of a medical operation. His interest in physiology resulted in a number of paintings depicting boxing, rowing and fishing as well as many portraits. He also excelled as a photographer and worked with Eadweard Muybridge in 1894 in filming human and animal movement. Eakins became director of the Academy in 1882. He introduced several innovations in the art curriculum, including an emphasis on anatomy and scientific perspective, a procedure widely emulated in other colleges. Unfortunately Eakins’ preference for the use of the nude model in his art classes met with much public disapproval, though this was not shared by his students. In 1886, he was obliged to resign his post and when a number of his students instituted the Art Students League of Philadelphia, he became its unpaid director until 1893. Eakins devoted the rest of his life to painting, receiving awards at various expositions, Chicago, 1893, Paris, 1900, Buffalo, 1901 and a gold medal from St. Louis, 1904. He died in Philadelphia in 1916, aged 72. See Hamilton, J.M. and Morris, H.S., ‘Thomas Eakins: Two Appreciations’, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nov. 1917; Soyer, R., Homage to Thomas Eakins (1966); Johns, E., Thomas Eakins: the Heroism of Modern Life (1983); Homer, W.I., Thomas Eakins: his Life his Art (1992).
