The Revenge of Thomas Eakins

Description

Thomas Eakins was misunderstood in life, his brilliant work earned little acclaim, and hidden demons tortured and drove him. Yet the portraits he painted more than a century ago captivate us today, and he is now widely acclaimed as the finest portrait painter our nation has ever produced. This book recounts the artist’s life in fascinating detail, drawing on a treasure trove of Eakins family correspondence and papers that have only recently been discovered. Never before has Thomas Eakins’s story been told with such drama, clarity, and accuracy. Sidney Kirkpatrick sets the painter’s life and art in the wider context of the changing world he devoted himself to portraying, and he also addresses the artist’s private life—the contradictory impulses, obsessions, and possible psychological illness that fired his work. Kirkpatrick underscores Eakins’s unflinching integrity as an artist and discloses how his profound appreciation of the beauty of the human form was both the source of his greatness and ultimately of his undoing. Nevertheless, the author observes, Eakins has had his “revenge,” inspiring a new generation of realist painters and gaining the recognition that eluded him in life. Contents introduction In Light and Shadow Part I. Master and Apprentice one. The Eakins Family of Philadelphia two. Master Benjamin three. The Art of the Penman four. An Uncertain Future five. The Medical Arts and the Fine Arts six. The Pennsylvania Academy seven. A Dangerous Young Adonis eight. From Temple to Palace nine. Heads and Hands ten. Letters Home eleven. Rough Around the Edges twelve. The Artist and His Muse thirteen. Picture Making Part II. Artist and Educator fourteen. The Road Less Traveled fifteen. Champion Oarsman sixteen. The Biglin Brothers Racing seventeen. Hikers and Hunters eighteen. Uncompromising Realism nineteen. A Good and Decent Girl twenty. The Blood-Covered Scalpel twenty-one. A Degradation of Art twenty-two. Painting Heads twenty-three. The Unflinching Eye twenty-four. Talk of the Town twenty-five. Nymph in the Fountain twenty-six. The Open Door twenty-seven. A May Morning in the Park twenty-eight. Jerusalem in New Jersey twenty-nine. Tripod and Easel thirty. Nudes and Prudes thirty-one. The Lovely Young Men of Dove Lake Part III. Exposed and Expelled thirty-two. Philanthropists and Philistines thirty-three. The Hanging Committee thirty-four. Point of No Return thirty-five. Demons and Demigods thirty-six. The Family Skeleton thirty-seven. Black Care thirty-eight. The Bard of Camden thirty-nine. A League of His Own forty. Dressed and Undressed forty-one. Portraits by a Modern Master forty-two. Horrors of the Dissecting Table forty-three. Casting for Commissions forty-four. The Pied Piper of Philadelphia Part IV. Forgiven and Forgotten forty-five. Portrait of a Physicist forty-six. Down for the Count forty-seven. Outlaw in an Undershirt forty-eight. Pictured Lives forty-nine. Pontiffs and Prelates fifty. Return to Rush fifty-one. Artist in Residence Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index