Photographic Innovation: “Eakin” Out a Place in History

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) is widely considered one of the greatest American artists in history. He is a chief contributor to American Realism. His works span many mediums including sculpture, photography, and painting. Eakins was gifted in math and anatomy as well as art. The human body is a recurrent subject in Eakins’ art, often depicted in the nude. He regularly flouted his university’s teaching policies against using fully nude models. He even posed nude with his students. While this allowed him to explore new ways of representing the human body, he was eventually dismissed from his teaching position at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1886 over concerns that his nude art was too realistic and therefore indecent. Eakins’ use of nude bodies has been a subject of scholarly debate. Some attribute it to his early anatomical training, which he incorporated into his own teachings. Others characterize his fascination with the nude as an echo of the Renaissance quest to recover classical idealized bodies. This collection highlights his incorporation of photography in the artistic process, both as a medium and as an inspiration. Eakins’ innovative use of photography enabled him to portray bodies in a uniquely realistic way.

Thomas Eakins
The Gross Clinic
1875
oil, canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, US

One of the advantages Eakins had was his understanding of anatomy. This aided him greatly in portraying the human body. His course track at the Pennsylvania Academy was heavy in anatomy. This piece was an early piece by Eakins. The surgery scene causes squeamishness reinforced by the woman shielding her eyes but the viewer is comforted by the strong figure in the middle of the composition. That is Samuel Gross, a top physician of the time. Eakins uses light to highlight Gross’s head and hands, perhaps referring to the renaissance emphasis of head and hands to communicate the artist’s intellect and skill but reattributing this status instead to the surgeon. This work shows Eakins’ early commitment to representing the human body as it was, even if it made people uncomfortable. It was rejected by the academy most likely for its unsettling realism.

Thomas Eakins
The Crucifixion
1880
oil, canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, US

In this one of Eakins’ works, Christ’s bloody, sagging body is portrayed in an excruciatingly realistic way. Eakins portrays Christ as a human, without any inclusion of a divine God in the composition. There are small details, like his grasping hands or his trickling blood, that cause the viewer to cringe and contribute to the realistic portrayal of Christ’s body. Eakins was again determined to portray a realistic human form even if it unsettled the viewer. This is also present in his photography. This is the only religious work by Eakins and he regarded it as his finest painting.

Thomas Eakins
Eakins's Students at the "The Swimming Hole"
1884
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, United States
Print, Albumen silver

This picture was taken at a beach in New Jersey. Eakins stands in a classical Greek pose left while his students are all posed in profile or with their back to the camera. The students are arranged in a variety of positions to capture the motion of playing in the swimming hole. Eakins had used students as models before but here he uses photography to bring together multiple positions and body types into one moment. The carefully staged scene is captured by camera for later reference in Eakins’ studio.

Thomas Eakins
Swimming (later “The Swimming Hole”)
1885
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, United States
Oil on canvas

Inspired by the photograph of the actual swimming hole, Eakins portrays his students’ multiple body types and positions them in a sequence of movement. One student stands like a triumphant classical Greek, embodying the glory of the nude male. Eakins includes his dog and signs the work with a self-portrait of himself swimming in the lower right “signature corner.” The photograph provides a reference and inspiration for Eakins but the artist still creates a structure and narrative unique from photographic reality through painting.

Thomas Eakins
[Thomas Eakins and John Laurie Wallace on a Beach]
ca. 1883
Accession Number: 43.87.23
Platinum print

This picture was probably taken on the same outing that the swimming hole photo was from. Eakins poses with a student again in classical Greek contrapposto. The framing of this shot places the two men’s bodies as the central focus of the piece without offering a narrative to explain why the men are on the beach. This photo demonstrates Eakins’ commitment to representing the body realistically even if it makes the viewer uncomfortable. The beauty of the human body is enough of a subject in itself, there is no need for an accompanying narrative. It shows that for Eakins photography does not exist only to facilitate painting, it exists as an art medium in itself.