Thomas Eakins

Thomas Eakins was a photographer and sculptor, but was best known for his paintings. His best known works were sports images from rowing and swimming. However, he became successful and famous only after his death. Descended from an Irish family, he was an avid and versatile sportsman. His childhood friend Max Schmitt (1842-1900) taught him the German language. Eakins caused several scandals by his penchant for nudes, in a time of very prudish America. Today he is considered one of the most important and most expensive painters of the United States before World War II. The art historian Henry Adams (born 1949) described Thomas Eakins in 2005 as the “Michael Jackson” of his time, because he also was guilty of serious misconducts such as anti-Semitism, bestiality, exhibitionism, incest, lies, sadism, poor writing style, sexism, unattractiveness and voyeurism.

Although Eakins was married three times, it is still unclear whether he was heterosexual or homosexual. What is known about some of his friends and students is that they were gay, but it was never confirmed that he himself was gay. In some of his works homosexual motives can be identified.

In 1932 three of his works were posthumously exhibited hors concours because he died 16 years earlier. Several versions of The Oarsmen were painted between 1872 and 1874. The entered painting, which is in the Pennsylvania Museum, dates from 1872 and was initially titled The Pair-Oared Shell (oil on canvas, 61 x 91.4 cm). The portrayed rowers were Eakins’ friends Henry and Billy Schreiber. The painting showed them on the Schuylkill River next to a pier of the Columbia Railroad Bridge in Philadelphia.

The second painting with a rowing motif, is fully titled The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake. It showed the brothers’ two-oared shell making a turn around a pole. Eakins painted it in 1874 in oil on canvas measuring 101.3 x 151.4 cm, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Unlike the Schreibers, the three Biglin brothers were professional rowers. The painting shows John (?-1886) and Barney (1840–1924) Biglin in a famous race on the Schuylkill River in 1872.

Between Rounds was painted much later in 1898/99 in oil on canvas, measuring 127.3 x 101.3 cm. As early as 1929, this work was also donated to the Pennsylvania Museum. It did not show any specific boxing fight but the setting was carefully arranged by Eakins.