Lot Essay
Although several of Thomas Eakins' most well-known works of the 1870s, including The Gross Clinic, 1875 and Max Schmitt in a Single Skull, 1871, incorporate the strikingly precise detail captured by the camera, the painter did not pick up and begin to use it as a tool in his work until 1880. However, it is clear that Eakins was well aware of the lessons to be taken from photography. In the late 1870s, Eakins was involved with the engineer, Fairman Roger at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, as the two worked with the early motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge, observing the gait of a horse in motion. In 1879, Eakins, commissioned by Rogers, painted Fairman Roger's Four-in-Hand, based on their studies of equine movement.
Clearly, this endeavor pushed Eakins to further explore the use of the camera in his own work. In addition, around 1880 photographic technology advanced introducing the availability of a dry-gelatin plate to the amateur photographer. In his classes during the early 1880s Eakins began to encourage his students to study the body both from life and through photographs, often taken by him or his students. These photographs captured both the form of the body as well as the body in action. Eakins soon took the camera and his students out of doors to record the body, allowing him to observe the fall of natural light and shadow on the human form. It is clear from the number and large size of the platinum prints produced for The Swimming Hole, c.1883 (Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth), that Eakins had a great interest in this theme in his work. The finished painting appears to be based on a combination of figures selected from several photographs. The images offered here, and a print in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, appear to have been important to the final work as the figures pose in a carefully staged arrangement for the camera. Many of his photographs were produced in a collaborative effort with his students, yet all were clearly inspired by Eakins. It is suggested that after 1875, photographic sources were used for all of Eakins' major paintings.
The Pennsylvania Academy's collection of 648 photographs was acquired from the Charles Bregler Thomas Eakins collection in 1985. Bregler was a student and close friend of Eakins and his wife, who cared for the collection after Susan Macdowell Eakins' death. (For further information see: Pennsylvania Academy/Smithsonian, Eakins and the Photograph)
Clearly, this endeavor pushed Eakins to further explore the use of the camera in his own work. In addition, around 1880 photographic technology advanced introducing the availability of a dry-gelatin plate to the amateur photographer. In his classes during the early 1880s Eakins began to encourage his students to study the body both from life and through photographs, often taken by him or his students. These photographs captured both the form of the body as well as the body in action. Eakins soon took the camera and his students out of doors to record the body, allowing him to observe the fall of natural light and shadow on the human form. It is clear from the number and large size of the platinum prints produced for The Swimming Hole, c.1883 (Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth), that Eakins had a great interest in this theme in his work. The finished painting appears to be based on a combination of figures selected from several photographs. The images offered here, and a print in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, appear to have been important to the final work as the figures pose in a carefully staged arrangement for the camera. Many of his photographs were produced in a collaborative effort with his students, yet all were clearly inspired by Eakins. It is suggested that after 1875, photographic sources were used for all of Eakins' major paintings.
The Pennsylvania Academy's collection of 648 photographs was acquired from the Charles Bregler Thomas Eakins collection in 1985. Bregler was a student and close friend of Eakins and his wife, who cared for the collection after Susan Macdowell Eakins' death. (For further information see: Pennsylvania Academy/Smithsonian, Eakins and the Photograph)