1844 -1916 · Philadelphia and American scientific realism

Surgeons at work, rowers on the Schuylkill and portraits without flattery make Thomas Eakins the great anatomist of American realism.

Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was born in Philadelphia in 1844 and died there in 1916. A student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he also took anatomy courses at Jefferson Medical College. In Paris, from 1866 to 1869, he studied at the School of Fine Arts with Jean-Léon Gérôme and Léon Bonnat, then discovered the painting of Velázquez and Ribera in Spain. Returning to Philadelphia in 1870, he applied perspective, anatomy and scientific observation to contemporary American subjects. Max Schmitt in a skiff and the scenes of the Biglin brothers transformed rowing on the Schuylkill into a precise study of movement, space and light. Doctor Gross's Clinic, painted for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, shows surgeon Samuel Gross teaching an operation in the amphitheater of Jefferson Medical College; Eakins' blood, collective concentration and discreet self-portrait give modern science the breadth of a history painting. The Agnew Clinic took up the theme with another organization of the medical team. The Agnew Clinic took up the theme with another organization of the medical team. Professor then director at the Pennsylvania Academy, Eakins reformed teaching through the study of the nude, dissection and photography of movement, but his methods caused his dismissal in 1886. His late portraits refused idealization and sought the character of the model through long sessions. Athlete, photographer, sculptor and teacher, Eakins makes the observed body the center of an art of truth. The "Thomas Eakins" selection notably compares The Clinic of Doctor Gross and Max Schmitt in a skiff. His reading favors light.

Eakins measures to better understand: perspective, anatomy and light always lead to the singular truth of a body.