Eakins, Thomas

Thomas Eakins (1844 - 1916) was born in Philadelphia, PA. A realist portaitist, Eakins enjoyed outdoor athletic subjects for his paintings. Studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (and later becoming a controversial educator there), Eakins attended lectures at Jefferson Medical College in order to further familiarize himself with the human figure. In 1866 he went to France to study at l'École des Beaux-Arts with Jean-Léon Gérôme, but impressionism never made an impression on him. After three years of study there, Eakins went to Spain, where he first explored oil painting.

Eakins returned to Philadelphia in 1870, where he painted domestic family pieces of his sisters and fiancée. After the deaths of his mother and fiancée, Eakins went back to outdoor sporting subjects. He would often insert himself into paintings as an observer. In 1875, when preparing a piece for Philadelphia's Centennial Exposition the following year. Eakins painted a scene of Samuel Gross at Jefferson Medical College operating in front of his students, showing Gross in the picture as both a surgeon and a teacher. The painting, The Gross Clinic, was rejected due to its showing of blood and pain in Philadelphia, though scenes depicting religious martyrdom were met without question.

In 1879, Eakins began teaching drawing and painting at PAFA, where he stressed anatomy and the use of live models. Because these models were nude before mixed classes, PAFA's reputation came with notoriety, and despite his insistences that the model-artist relationship was educational and professional, Eakins was forced to resign in 1886. He continued teaching at Philadlephia's Art Students League and New York's National Academy of Design. Eakins's art was not sought after during his life, and it was not until 1916, the year in which he died, that a museum acquired one of his works when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York picked up Pushing for Rail.