Exhibition Catalogue
Readers interested in learning more
about Eakins's life and work may want
to own the very fine catalogue of the
recent retrospective. To the publisher's
comments and quotes from reviews, I
would add only that its scholarly essays
are both highly informative and a pleasure to read. Non-scholars will find them readily accessible for the most part,
and are likely to be as enthralled as I by the more than 575
illustrations--including 250 in color (about 80 of which are
full-page reproductions of Eakins's most important
paintings). My only quibble is that the catalogue lacks a
general index (though there is one of the works illustrated),
which would have made it more useful, especially for
scholars and students. Apart from this, I could not
recommend this volume more highly. It is sure to give
countless hours of delight and instruction. The hardcover
edition of Thomas Eakins (which can be
ordered directly through this link to amazon.com, thereby
helping to support the Aristos website) is now available for
less than the cost of the paperback.--L.T.
Online Sources
Art Renewal Center. There are nearly fifty images of paintings by Eakins on this comprehensive website, and 147 of works by his mentor, Gérôme.
"List of Works by Thomas Eakins." Highly recommended, especially for students and scholars. As Wikipedia notes, this list serves, in effect, as a catalogue raisonné of Eakins's work, as none presently exists. Click on an image, then click on the image again to view it by itself. - Posted August 2011
"Collections Online." Images of 146 Eakins works in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A useful site for information on individual works after one has viewed the work itself elsewhere. See "The Concert Singer," for example. Museum image and information: Learn precisely how Eakins went about capturing Weda Cook's expression as she sang a composition by Felix Mendelssohn).
Artcyclopedia. The Eakins entry on this website lists relevant museums and galleries, image galleries, articles, and more.
"Pieces of the Real." Barely perceivable details from two of Eakins's paintings, The Champion Single Sculls and The Gross Clinic (mistakenly titled The Portrait of Professor Gross), are illustrated and briefly discussed here.
"Thomas Eakins: Scenes from Modern Life." An image gallery of photographs and paintings is the highlight of this website devoted to a film about Eakins's travels to Paris, Seville, and North Dakota, and his life and work in Philadelphia. The lesson plans for teachers of grades 9 through 12 are not recommended for many reasons--not least that they virtually ignore Eakins's paintings.
Naked Series: Female model (c. 1883). One of the "Naked Series," consisting of seven albumen prints, is illustrated in a flawed review of the retrospective exhibition in Paris. Scroll down to view image.
"Study of Muscular Action." Eakins's interest in the science of anatomy is reflected in this lantern slide taken by him, in which a man demonstrates the tensile strength of a horse's muscles.
"Thomas Eakins: 'The Camera Artist.'" In this brief essay on Eakins's use of photography in his painting, one learns about the discovery of the tell-tale photographs in 1984.
"Master Craftsman," by Roger Kimball (National Review, November 19, 2001), on the artchive.com website. Kimball, who admires Eakins, offers a brief informed review of the recent retrospective.
"Traces of Genius: Is Art Sullied by Technology?" by Charles Paul Freund, Reason, August 2002. Regarding the Eakins exhibition and other matters related to the use of photography and the alleged use of other optical devices throughout art history, the author (who is not an art critic) claims that the use of optical aids enhances the art of painting.
"Technology and Genius" [scroll down]. Responding to the article by Charles Freund cited above, this letter from Louis Torres to the editor of Reason (December 2002) discusses Eakins's practice of tracing photographs onto his canvases and argues that Freund was wrong to suggest that the practice enhanced works so made. (The review of the Eakins exhibition, referred to in the letter was regrettably delayed, and appears in this issue (August 2003) of Aristos as "Thomas Eakins: Painting Pure Thought.")
Susan Macdowell Eakins. First a student of Eakins, then his wife, Susan Eakins was herself an accomplished painter whom he much admired. One can understand why after viewing 17 images of her work posted by Suzay Lamb on July 24, 2011 on the superb American Gallery: Greatest American Painters website. - Posted August 2011
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