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Saturday, June 16, 2018

Thomas Eakins - realist painter of the late 19th century by Kaye Spencer #sweetheartsofthewest #OldWestHistory #OldWestArt

When I think of artists whose paintings and sculptures captured the essence of the American West, the names that come readily to mind are:

Charles Russell (1864-1926) - His dramatic representations usually show men on horseback. He also sculpted.
'Bronc to Breakfast'

George Catlin (1796-1872) - His work was predominantly concerned with the Native Americans.
'Tipis'

Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) -  His paintings leaned toward sweeping, romantic landscapes of the Old West.
'Prong-horned Antelope'

Thomas Moran (1837-1926) - His paintings focused on western landscapes like Albert Bierdstadt’s.
'Green River, Wyoming'

Frederick Remington (1861-1909) - His artistic talents leaned toward paintings and sculptures involving cavalry officers, Native Americans, and horses. He provided illustrations of the American West for magazines.
'Fight for the Waterhole'

To this list of extraordinary artists, I would add the Philadelphia native, Thomas Eakins (1844-1909).

'Thomas Eakins self-portrait'

His works, while not strictly focused on the west,
'Home Ranch'

'Cowboys in the Badlands'

are a more well-rounded study of the human condition of the time, albeit, the ‘eastern’ time.

'The Courtship'
'The Artist's Wife and his Setter Dog'
James Thomas Flexner - writer and 20th century scholar, biographer, researcher, art aficionado - said of Thomas Eakins, “His gift was to catch people at the moment when they lapsed into themselves.”1

Life in the American east and in Europe influenced the happenings in the west. The fashions, medicine and medical milestones, transportation, sports, leisure, and the day-to-day living “back east” had eventual impacts on life out west, and Thomas Eakins’ paintings show us those connections. For me, the ‘life’ he painted and preserved on canvas and his photography tell a broader story of what real life was like back then.


'Four-in-Hand - May Morning in the Park'
Eakins was a realist painter, photographer, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. Other than trips abroad, he lived his life in his home town of Philadelphia, and the subjects of his art were the people around him. Eakins was a ‘colorful’ character for all of his 71 years, and he possessed a life-long passion for the human body as the ultimate art form. This information from Wikipedia sums up his work and his philosophy as a teacher:

He painted several hundred portraits, usually of friends, family members, or prominent people in the arts, sciences, medicine, and clergy. Taken en masse, the portraits offer an overview of the intellectual life of Philadelphia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; individually, they are incisive depictions of thinking persons.

He believed that women should "assume professional privileges" as would men. Life classes and dissection were segregated but women had access to male models (who were nude but for loincloths).
Controversy shaped much of his career as a teacher and as an artist. He insisted on teaching men and women "the same", used nude male models in female classes and vice versa…

'The Agnew Clinic'

I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2008 and view the Thomas Eakins exhibit. (yes, THAT museum with the “Rocky” stairs) So for fun, here’s a picture of me and Rocky.


For more information about Thomas Eakins, I would direct you to the website devoted to his life and works — HERE — and to this book, The Revenge of Thomas Eakins by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick.



Until next time,

Kaye Spencer


Website/Blog- https://www.kayespencer.com
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Images and Reference:
The images included in this post are in the Public Domain and can be found through the Google Art Project, which is an “online platform through which the public can access high-resolution images of artworks housed in the initiative's partner museums.” Some images are mine that I took when I visited  the Philadelphia Museum of Art in June 2008.

1. Kirkpatrick, Sidney D. “In Light and Shadow.” The Revenge of Thomas Eakins, Yale Univ. Press, 2006.

6 comments:

  1. Art is so important. Many forget the early artist, and I include photographers in that category, influenced how we saw ourselves and others. Thanks for bringing another 'master' to our consciousness. Doris

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    Replies
    1. Doris,

      I would include photographers, too. Can you imagine lugging all of that photography equipment around back then? They were a dedicated and driven 'species' of artist.

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  2. Kaye, I absolutely LOVED my time working at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum--worked there for 2 years, and I really loved it. Surrounded by beauty every day, all day. In the first gallery, there was an enormous Bierstadt, "EMIGRANTS CROSSING THE PLAINS"--I didn't realize it but back "in the day" they used to paint more than one painting that was almost identical to the original. I had a book that had "that painting" in it, but...wait...some of the details were different. How could that be? LOL I freaked out until I found out about that practice. That is one of my favorite paintings because it was so huge and vibrant. I was not familiar with Eakins, but I'm so glad you blogged about him--I will definitely look him up!

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    Replies
    1. Cheryl,

      I had no idea there were additional paintings of some originals. That's interesting. Eakins went against the societal norms and it got him into trouble, but he was determined to paint the human body in its raw form.

      Delete
  3. Hope this link comes through--this is a short little video about Emigrants Crossing the Plains--really interesting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw53Mlg3H6k

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheryl,
      Thanks for the link. I'm passingly familiar with the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, but I had no idea about these little video snippets. I'm going to subscribe to the museum's YouTube Channel.

      Delete

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