Thomas Eakins [Hardcover]

Darrel Sewell (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300091117 | ISBN-13: 978-0300091113 | Publication Date: September 1, 2001 | Edition: 1ST

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) is one of the most fascinating and important personalities in the history of American art. His memorable and much-loved scenes of rowing, sailing, and boxing as well as his deeply moving portraits are renowned for their vibrant realism and dramatic intensity. This beautiful and insightful book, published in conjunction with a major exhibition on the life and career of Eakins - the first in twenty years - presents a fresh perspective on the artist and his remarkable accomplishments. Lavishly illustrated with more than 250 of Eakins's most significant paintings, watercolours, drawings, and sculpture, the book features essays by prominent scholars who place his art in the context of the history and culture of late nineteenth-century Philadelphia, where he lived. The contributors also discuss how Eakins applied his French academic training to subjects that were distinctly American and part of his own immediate and complex experience. Eakins's own photographs, which he used as part of his unique creative process, are also examined for the first time in the full context of his life's work. The exhibition Thomas Eakins will be on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 4th October, 2001 to 6th January, 2002; the Musee d'Orsay, Paris, from 3rd February to 12th May, 2002; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from 10th June to 15th Spetember, 2002.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Accompanying the first major retrospective in more than 20 years of a major American artist, this catalogue is simply ravishing. Eakins (1844-1916) produced some of the most hauntingly beautiful pastoral paintings and portraits of any era, in a manner related to but distinct from contemporaries J.M. Whistler and Winslow Homer. Sewell, Robert L. McNeil Jr. curator of American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (in Eakins's home city, whence the exhibit originates), divides Eakins's career into four distinct periods, bringing together compelling strands of Eakins scholarship, particularly on the systematic sets of photographs the artist took and from which he often worked, including Muybridgian motion studies. Seeing and reading about the transformation of enigmatic sepia-toned photographic nudes (often including the artist) into Eakins's art is little short of breathtaking. The "homotextuality" of many of them has been the subject of much recent critical inquiry, but the essays gathered by Sewell are assiduously noncommittal as to Eakins's sexual practice. There are more than 575 illustrations in all, 250 of which are in color and full-page. Fabulously printed, thoughtful and formally exhaustive, this will be the definitive Eakins catalogue for the foreseeable future. (Nov.) Forecast: The exhibition which will be in Philadelphia from October through January, travels to Paris's Mus‚e d'Orsay and the Met in New York over the next year; it should be a blockbuster that results in strong sales at the museum shops. Gift tables (especially gay and lesbian) and university libraries are also a lock price will deter few, given the lavishness of the printing.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Unlike his aristocratic contemporaries John Singer Sargent and William Merritt Chase, the great 19th-century realist painter Thomas Eakins depicted more prosaic topics, such as people boxing and rowing and musicians at work. While his pictures lack the enigmatic air that his peers achieved, in his passion and exactitude Eakins can be favorably compared with his idols Vel zquez and Rembrandt. He was both a hero to his students and an outcast from the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, where he was forced to resign in 1886 after daring to study the male nude with female students. This enormous volume accompanies the largest retrospective of his work yet, organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In addition to 60 well-known easel pictures, the exhibition and this catalog includes some 120 photographs as well as examples of his work in watercolor, drawing, and sculpture. As an event, it's a turning point in expanding Eakins's reputation; only in recent decades have critics taken note of his efforts beyond painting. Several lengthy and interesting biocritical essays, themselves making up 175 pages of text, separate four sections of color plates. This is clearly the definitive monograph on one of the most significant artists America has produced. Recommended for all libraries. Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L., CA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 488 pages
• Publisher: Philadelphia Museum of Art; 1ST edition (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300091117
• ISBN-13: 978-0300091113
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 10.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE TO EAKINS THE ARTIST, December 3, 2001

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thomas Eakins (Hardcover)

Anecdotes abound in reference to Thomas Eakins American painter, watercolorist, draftsman, photographer, and sculptor. He is remembered for relaxing after painting by working calculus problems, and shocking friends with stories of his nude models.

A skilled portraitist he painted Walt Whitman. The poet said of his likeness, "I never knew of but one artist, and that's Tom Eakins, who could resist the temptation to see what they think ought to be rather than what is."

Whitman's opinion aside, Eakins (1844 - 1916) is recognized as one of the premier American artists to appear following the Civil War. He traveled to Paris for training, and later chose to apply Beaux-Arts techniques to distinctly American subjects. His fondness for athletics is found in his noted scenes of sailing, fishing, and boxing.

He is equally remembered for his then controversial paintings of surgeons at work, and remains a key figure in American art. This beautiful volume is apt affirmation of Eakins the artist.

- Gail Cooke

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not enough paintings, July 30, 2009

By 

Ben Pines - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Thomas Eakins (Hardcover)

This large, well-produced book features far more reproductions of photographs by Eakins and his circle than reproductions of his paintings. All reproductions of images are excellent, but, again, far too few paintings are included. There is some interesting scholarship concerning Eakins' use of photography. The book is arranged chronologically, with images scattered throughout; this scattering reduces the accessibility of the relatively few reproductions of the paintings. This book provides some fresh, interesting scholarship on a significant American artist, but it may be a disappointment for those who want primarily to look at Eakins' paintings.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And research turns to wonder..., January 17, 2002

By 

Julia Bronwen (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thomas Eakins (2 volumes) (Hardcover)

I'm a rower in high school on the west coast, and you don't really hear much about rowing over here, since it's mostly an east coast sport. So when my history teacher started going over Thomas Eakins and showed a clip about him from a documentary with some examples of his rowing paintings, my attention was immediately captures. I decided to do my term paper on him, but I expected it to be a long and tedious process, judging from the book I got from the library (which looked plain, boring, and old), so I put it off 'till the last minute. I just picked up the book an hour ago for the first time and just got online to see if they had any copies of it ..., since it proved to be well-written and interesting (so you don't space out so much in the middle of paragraphs like I tend to), and because it led me to think about things that are important parts of learning and art and life, but nobody ever talks about. This book proved to be insightful and fascinating, and after only one chapter, I'm hooked on the subject! And to think I was dreading reading it!