Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916). <em>William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River</em>, 1908. Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 × 48 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (92.1 × 122.6 × 3.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 39.461 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 39.461_PS22.jpg)

Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916). William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River, 1908. Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 × 48 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (92.1 × 122.6 × 3.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 39.461 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 39.461_PS22.jpg)

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Is this a Thomas Eakins painting?

Yes! Thomas Eakins was a very important figure in American art of the late 1800s and early years of the 1900s. He was a "realist" in that he strongly believed in showing present-day life and ordinary people in everyday occupations.

Here he shows one of his artistic predecessors, the Philadelphia sculptor William Rush, hard at work in his studio making a public sculpture for Philadelphia. Eakins taught all his students to work directly from the full nude and to study anatomy with an almost scientific eye. Female art students were often prohibited from studying from live male models (due to Victorian propriety), and he fought that convention in his own teaching.

Can you tell me about these?

Sure! Dotty Attie is a painter, photographer and printmaker who is perhaps most well known for her feminist reworkings of Old Master paintings. This work appropriates details from two paintings by the artist Thomas Eakins, 'The Gross Clinic' and 'The Champion Single Sculls'.

Attie has juxtaposed these details with text recounting a controversial event in Eakins's professional career, when he allowed female students to sketch from a live, nude male model and consequently lost his teaching position.

With this work she is encouraging the viewer to actively think about hypocrisy in American society (why do we allow images of violence against the human body but condemn nudity?) as well as gender discrimination in the art world.

If you're curious, you can see a work by Thomas Eakins himself that shows an artist working from a live female nude in his studio in that same gallery. The painting is titled, 'William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River."

What's the history here?

Thomas Eakins was a very important figure in American art of the late 1800s and early years of the 1900s. He was a "realist" in that he strongly believed in showing present-day life and ordinary people in everyday occupations.

William Rush (the subject of the painting) was a founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he taught for many years until 1886, when he was dismissed in a controversy about his allowing female students to attend life classes.

How is it an allegory? That doesn't make sense.

The female figure that the male subject (William Rush) is carving is an allegorical figure -- a public sculpture he was commissioned to make. The figure represents the Schuylkill River which is just outside of Philadelphia.

How can a figure represent a river?

Symbolically! Just like a blindfolded woman holding scales can represent justice.

William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River

Thomas Eakins

American Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Surface Tension

This is one of several paintings in which Thomas Eakins provided an imaginary glimpse of the Philadelphia sculptor William Rush carving The Water Nymph and Bittern, which was installed in Philadelphia's Centre Square In 1809. Although Eakins's initial motives came from a desire to restore Rush's name to the history of American art, his primary focus on the back of a strongly highlighted nude model also calls into play issues about traditional methods of art instruction. Rush was a founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where Eakins taught for many years until 1886, when he was dismissed in a controversy about his allowing female students to attend life classes.

ARTIST Thomas Eakins, American, 1844–1916

MEDIUM Oil on canvas

DATES 1908

DIMENSIONS 36 1/4 × 48 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (92.1 × 122.6 × 3.2 cm) frame: 45 x 57 x 3 1/2 in. (114.3 x 144.8 x 8.9 cm) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Signed lower center on scroll: "EAKINS 1908"

COLLECTIONS American Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 39.461

CREDIT LINE Dick S. Ramsay Fund

PROVENANCE By 1916, inherited from the artist by Susan Macdowell Eakins (Mrs. Thomas Eakins); between 1916 and 1936, provenance not yet documented; before 1936, acquired by E. C. Babcock Galleries, New York, NY; 1939, purchased from E. C. Babcock Galleries by the Brooklyn Museum.

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EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Surface Tension

CAPTION Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916). William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River, 1908. Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 × 48 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (92.1 × 122.6 × 3.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 39.461 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 39.461_PS22.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 39.461_PS22.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024

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RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions

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