This past
summer I had the chance to work on a research project I created. My topic was
Class in American Portraiture in a Historic context and Contemporary. During this project I was able to
travel around to different museums to get a better understanding of
portraiture.
The first
place we went was the Philadelphia Museum of Art, home of a collection of
Thomas Eakins paintings and sculptures. When we walked into the section that
had a group of Eakins portraits gridded on the wall we just saw people. I had
no idea why these would be so important to my research. Well, Thomas Eakins
portraits were very different from most portraits during this time. They were
humble, some considered them ugly, and they were hardly ever liked. One
portrait he did of a school teacher we dissected:
 |
| Thomas Eakins, Portrait of Lucy Lewis, oil on canvas, 1896, Philadelphia Museum of Art |
(http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/thomas-eakins/portrait-of-lucy-lewis-1896)
Even
though this is one of the only portraits that he painted someone with delicate
beauty, she still fit the group in which he painted: middle class, educated,
and active in her career. He painted all his portraits as if the person was
sitting right next to you. There is no separation between the viewer and the
sitter. Think to when you see a portrait of a President, there is this
separation where they are more important than you, in this other world. This is
very different than Eakins, and why he rarely received commissions for
portraits. Moving on:
_1900.jpg) |
| Thomas Eakins, Portrait of Mary Adeline Williams, oil on canvas, 1900, Philadelphia Museum of Art |
(http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/thomas-eakins/portrait-of-mary-adeline-williams)
This
portrait of Mary Adeline Williams. Comparing the two portraits, you can see how
he paints them very raw and only hints at their money or success. For instance,
in this portrait her energetic blouse shows she isn’t poor and represents her
mood. In the Portrait of Lucy Lewis, she is wearing a tiny gold necklace which
Eakins just slightly makes glimmer.
In the next post I will do a comparison to the National Portraits of the Presidents!
