Thomas Eakins

J. Laurie Wallace also appears in this 1883 self portait by Thomas Eakins.

 

Thomas Eakins Day, Part One - The Great Outdoors

It's Thomas Eakins Day, and part one features outdoor photos, starting with this fellow who has been labeled as either Jesse Godley or Frank Stevens.  I'm not sure he's either of those two. but he seems more likely to be Frank, who appears in today's intermission.  See what y'all think.

 

Unknown

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Group with the Professor

This photo shows Prof. Eakins with J. Laurie Wallace (right) and an unknown.

I find the unknown fellow quite impressive.

 

Lanky

This lanky student seems to have stepped on a thorn.

That happens going barefoot in the brush.

 

Thomas Eakins Day, Intermission - Thomas, Harry, and Frank

For an intermission I'm posting two composites of anatomical studies along with a canine entry.  As noted earlier, Thomas Eakins was not at all shy about posing nude himself, and the photos above are only a few of a couple of dozen of studio poses of the maestro in the buff.

 

Harry and Friend

Above we have Thomas' Eakins dog Harry, and below we see Harry with another dog from the Eakins household.  I've seen them described as spaniels and setters, but either way they are find boys.

I featured a photo of the black one sleeping in a past series.

 

Frank Stevens

This is a composite I made of student Frank Stevens.

 

Thomas Eakins Day, Part Two - The Circle

Part two of our Thomas Eakins features items labeled as "Circle of Eakins" in most collections.  

There is some uncertainty as to whether these were done indepently by Mr. Eakins' students 

and associates or done under his supervision.  Either way, they have his imprint.  We start 

with an intersting and active scene.  Two of the three nude models out front are resting 

while the third seems to be taking a whack at something with a juggling club.  

Or perhaps he just walloped the guy falling back in the rear.

 

Expansive

This remarkably expansive photo shows a studio scene with three nude models, a clothed attendant amond the models, and three additional clothed men off to the left side.  Unfortunately, the photo is damaged, so I've broken it down into three parts which I individually enhanced with software below.

The nude model above seems to be sawing something.  Shades of Muybridge.

The central figure seems more muscular when enlarged and clarified.

The nude model above has a bit of a pot belly and looks older than the other models.

The clothed man is holding a rag and has something on a shoulder strap I can't make out.

Is he dressed as a soldier?  Or is he the helpful fluffer?

 

Two models, two views

Here we have two views of what I presume to be the same models during the same session.

 

 At first glance, I thought the young man at center had his hand on the other guys bottom.

A closer look proved otherwise, but it's still a rather interesting photo.

And there's the guy off to the side again holding that odd object.

Thomas Eakins

Today we will take a deeper look at the career of Thomas Eakins.  While there will be several of his famous nude photos, we'll also view some works that were influenced by him.  We start with a typical panel set of nudes of an unknown student.

 

Charles Gruppe

Let's not forget that first and foremost, Thomas Eakins was a painter.

This is his portrait of Charles Gruppe.

 

Circle I

In the past, I have posted photos attributed to "Circle of Eakins," and this is the first of three in today's set.  There are various versions of just who took these.  The most common is that the students did it under Eakins' supervision, but some think they did it all on their own, and others say Eakins himself was the photographer.  My own theory is that it was some combination of all of the above.  A common element is that for some reason the prints handed down are dark.  I lightened this one.

 

Sam Murray

It wasn't until decades after Thomas Eakins' death that his neice found letters indicating what many had long suspected, i.e. that Eakins and Samuel Murray (above) were lovers.

 

George Agnew Reid I

These not very clear images are of George Agnew Reid, a Canadian student who attended Thomas Eakins classes in the early 1880s.  As you will see in a later post today, he went on to quite a career.

 

Unknown

The model in this triple panel is unknown, at least to me.

 

Circle II

This Circle of Eakins photo is an interesting comparative exercise, with the nude and clothed models side by side in exactly the same pose.  It might have worked better had they spliced together two photos of the same model, but the point does come across.  Disclosure:  I removed yellowing.

 

Nude Selfie

This is a slightly different version of a pose that I posted here almost five years ago.

It is from a panel of eight taken in the same session.  As I've pointed out before,

Mr. Eakins did not ask his students to pose nude without also doing so himself.