This is a list of professionally authenticated paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Thomas Eakins (1844–1916). As there is no catalogue raisonné of Eakins' works,[1] this is an aggregation of existing published catalogs.
Background
During his lifetime, Thomas Eakins sold few paintings. On his death, ownership of his unsold works passed to his widow, Susan Macdowell Eakins, who kept them in their Philadelphia home. She dedicated the remaining years of her life to burnishing his legacy. In this, she was quite successful; in the period between Thomas Eakins' death and her own, she donated many of the strongest remaining pictures to museums around the world. The Philadelphia Museum of Art benefited particularly from these donations.
After Susan Macdowell Eakins' death in 1938, her executors emptied the house of anything which could be sold at auction. When former Eakins student Charles Bregler arrived at the house after it had been stripped he was horrified at what he found, describing it as the "most tragic and pitiful sight I ever saw. Every room was cluttered with debris as all the contents of the various drawers, closets etc were thrown upon the floor as they removed the furniture. All the life casts were smashed... I never want to see anything like this again."[2] The number of works lost or destroyed at this time will never be known.
Bregler carefully collected what was left. Most of what remained were drawings and other preparatory studies. He was highly secretive about the contents of his collection and rarely allowed anyone to see it. After Bregler's death, ownership of the collection passed to his second wife, Mary Louise Picozzi Bregler, who was even more guarded as to its contents. In 1986, shortly before her death, Mary Bregler agreed to sell the works to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[3]
Historiography
In the early 1930s, Susan Macdowell Eakins invited art historian Lloyd Goodrich into her home. Goodrich inventoried the collection in the house, interviewed Eakins' surviving associates, and studied Eakins' personal notes. In 1933, Goodrich published Thomas Eakins: His Life and Works. Though it was incomplete, un-illustrated, and did not include Eakins' photographs, Goodrich's book was the first definitive study of Eakins and the first attempt to catalog his artistic output.[4]
In the 1970s, Gordon Hendricks published two Eakins catalogs. The Photographs of Thomas Eakins (1972; ISBN0-670-55261-5) is a fully illustrated catalog of photographs by Thomas Eakins and his associates. Because Eakins did not keep detailed records of his photographs, nor did he sign, title, or date them, many of the dates and photographers listed in the catalog are educated guesses on Hendricks' part. It is difficult to know who took a particular photograph because Eakins often had his students use it.[further explanation needed] Hence, the attribution on many of these photographs is "Circle of Eakins" to indicate that a photograph was taken either by Eakins or one of his associates. The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins (1974; ISBN0-670-42795-0) included a checklist of Eakins' works, a number of which had not been included in the 1933 Goodrich catalog.
In the 1980s, Lloyd Goodrich returned to the subject of Thomas Eakins. He began writing a three-volume book, Thomas Eakins. The first two volumes, published in 1982, were biographic in nature. Goodrich was unable to complete the third volume, a Thomas Eakins catalogue raisonné, before he died in 1987. He donated his papers to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in the hopes that the curators there would finish the catalogue raisonné. This has not happened.
Until 1986, the Charles Bregler collection was effectively unknown to art historians. A few of the works in the Bregler collection were included in the 1933 Goodrich catalog, but after that they effectively disappeared from the scholarly community. A proper inventory became possible only after their 1986 sale to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1997, art historian Kathleen Foster published a definitive catalog of the Bregler collection, Thomas Eakins Rediscovered. (ISBN0-300-06174-9)
List organization
Paintings, drawings, and sculptures are listed, where possible, by their Goodrich catalog number supplemented with modifications from Goodrich's notes for his never-completed Eakins catalogue raisonné.[5] The Goodrich catalog can be subdivided into three parts:
Juvenalia – Goodrich classified several early works by Thomas Eakins (works made prior to Eakins' arrival in Paris) as juvenalia, and prefaced with a "J". Though mentioned throughout the Eakins literature, the catalog itself was not published. However, the list is accessible in the Goodrich papers in the Philadelphia archives.
1933 catalog works – "G" followed by a number indicates it is from Goodrich's 1933 Eakins catalog.
1980s catalog works – "G" followed by a number and then a letter indicates a work that was not included in the 1933 Goodrich catalog, but was included in his two volume Thomas Eakins, or in notes for the third volume, the never-finished catalog.
Works in the Charles Bregler collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts are listed according to their number in Thomas Eakins Rediscovered.
Goodrich catalogue of Eakins' paintings and sculptures
Dr. Brinton was a close friend of Eakins's, and succeeded Dr. Samuel D. Gross as chair of surgery at Jefferson Medical College. (See G-126 for Eakins's portrait of Mrs. Brinton.)
Mrs. Samuel Hall Williams (Portrait of Abbie Williams)
102
Wood
c. 1876
Deaccessioned from the Art Institute of Chicago. Auctioned at Christie's NY, September 27, 2011; sold for $134,500.[121]
Originally double sided with G-106B until the two images were split[5]
Landscape
106B
Oil on wood
Originally double sided with G-106A until the two images were split[5] Deassessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Auctioned at Christie's NY, March 23, 2016, Lot 57.[127]
Auctioned at Christie's NY, June 3, 1983; sold for $80,000.[146] Ex collection: Gulf States Paper Corporation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (1983-2013).[147] Auctioned at Christie's New York, September 25, 2013; sold for $32,500.[148]
Double sided: one side is a study in Fairmount park. The other is a color note.
Study of Horse for The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand
137
Oil on wood
1879
Originally double sided with 137A until the two images were split[5] Deaccessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Auctioned at Sotheby's NY (in a lot with G-137A, G-199A & G-201A), May 21, 2009; the lot sold for $119,500.[172]
Study of Horses for The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand
137A
Oil on canvas
1879
Originally double sided with 137 until the two images were split[5] Deaccessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Auctioned at Sotheby's NY (in a lot with G-137, G-199A & G-201A), May 21, 2009; the lot sold for $119,500.[172]
Originally double sided with G-199A until the two images were split.[5]
Study of a Horse
199A
Drawing
Originally double sided with G-199 until the two images were split.[5] Deaccessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Auctioned at Sotheby's NY (in a lot with G-137, G-137A & G-201A), May 21, 2009; the lot sold for $119,500.[172]
Originally double sided with G-201 until the two images were split.[5] Deaccessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Auctioned at Sotheby's NY (in a lot with G-137, G-137A & G-199A), 2009; the lot sold for $119,500.[172]
Weda Cook and Statue
201B
Oil
See G-267A for a related study.
A Woman's Back: Study
202
Oil on wood
1879
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Dietrich II[235][236]
Destroyed by vandalism – "The portrait of [Edward W.] Boulton by Eakins was lent to the University Club for an exhibit, and a waiter ran amuck and slashed it up."[273]
Auctioned at Christie's NY, June 3, 1983; sold for $9000.[320] Ex collection: Gulf States Paper Corporation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (1983-2013). Auctioned at Christie's New York, September 25, 2013, Lot 196, Unsold.[321]
Black & white version of the 1879–80 original. Painted to be photographed as an illustration for Fairman Rogers, A Manual of Coaching (Philadelphia, 1900).
In Eakins Revealed (pp. 369–371), author Henry Adams claims that Mary Adeline "Addie" Williams, an Eakins family friend, was the nude model for G-451 William Rush and his Model, and related studies G-445, G-446, G-447, G-452, G-453 and G-454.
Dr. Hart (1810–1877) was principal of Philadelphia's Central High School when Eakins was a student. Eakins painted the posthumous portrait from a photograph. Rediscovered in 2004 by janitors in the boiler room of a Philadelphia school, it is currently in an undisclosed location.[280]
Lost, possibly destroyed: "Murray told Eakins biographer Lloyd Goodrich that he had it 'from a reliable source' that the painting, which Murray considered 'superb' was somehow disposed of."[390]
Double sided: one side is a sketch for Monsignor James P. Turner. The reverse is a sketch for William Rush and His Model (Honolulu), G-451. Related to G-454.
In Eakins Revealed (pp. 369–371), author Henry Adams claims that Mary Adeline "Addie" Williams (G-323), an Eakins family friend, was the nude model for William Rush and his Model. Related studies: G-445, G-446, G-447, G-452, G-453 and G-454.
Related to G-439. Deaccessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Auctioned at Christie's New York, May 20, 2009; sold for $122,500.[453] Offered at auctioned by Sotheby's New York, May 23, 2017, Lot 77, estimate: $80,000-120,000. Unsold.[454]
Eakins' last painting. This originally showed a full length Dr. Spitzka holding the cast of a brain. Sometime after it was cataloged in the 1933 Goodrich catalog (measuring 84×43+1⁄2 inches), someone cut away the rest of the painting, leaving only the head and bust (30+1⁄2×25? inches).[467]
Thought to have been lost ("Probably no longer in existence".) Later rediscovered. Passed down through the Sartain family to the Babcock Galleries, and was sold to Rita and Daniel Fraad in 1957. Auctioned at Sotheby's NY, December 1, 2004; sold for $170,000.[468]
Related to a full-length portrait of Rev. Denis J. Dougherty (c. 1906), G-438. The subject later became a Cardinal and Archbishop of Philadelphia
Mother Patricia Waldron
487
1903
"Probably no longer in existence" – loaned by the Sisters of Mercy to William Antrim, who had been commissioned to paint a new portrait of Waldron. Antrim stored the portrait in the attic of his studio. The portrait was lost when the building was demolished.[471] For sketch, see above, G-375.
Mrs. Margaret Jane Gish
488
c. 1903
"Probably no longer in existence"
Robert C. Ogden
489
"Probably no longer in existence"
Dr. J. William White
490
1904
"Probably no longer in existence"
Adolphie Borie
491
c. 1910
"Probably no longer in existence"
Mrs. Charles Lester Leonard
492
1895
No longer in existence
Mrs. Hubbard
493
c. 1895
No longer in existence
Mrs. McKeever
494
1898
No longer in existence
Bishop Edmond F. Prendergast
495
Oil on canvas
c. 1903
No longer in existence
Frank W. Stokes
496
1903
No longer in existence
Edward S. Buckley
497
1906
No longer in existence. According to Buckley's daughter: "It was so unsatisfactory that we destroyed it, not wishing his descendants to think of their grandfather as resembling the portrait."[472]
Quarter-size model. Josephine was the lead horse in The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand (G-133). Eakins and his students created a life-size plaster model of her in 1878. Following her natural death, c.1881, the carcass was dissected and used to create plaster écorché models for teaching equine anatomy.
Plaster casts are at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, and elsewhere. A 1930 bronze cast is in the collection of Jamie Wyeth.
^"Previous to Goodrich's monograph, only short essays on Eakins and checklists of his works had been published. NO monographic studies or commentaries on the artist appeared during his lifetime. Most notable of the early works on Eakins are Alan Burroughs' three articles which appeared in The Arts during 1923 and 1924 and Henri Marceau's essay and checklist (announcing the receipt of Susan Eakins' bequest). According to Goodrich, he was encouraged to write the Eakins monograph by close friend Reginald Marsh, an avid admirer of the older artist." – Milroy, 30, footnote 9
^ abcde"On the basis of Susan Eakins' opinion, Goodrich listed twelve paintings in his 1933 catalogue raisonne of Eakins' works which he identified as having been executed by the artist in Paris. All are small oil sketches measuring approximately eighteen by twelve inches in size: two studies from the antique; one of a ram's head and nine remaining studies from the male or female model. Of this dozen five have since disappeared, including the antique studies, the ram's head and two studies Goodrich described as portraits of an unidentified fellow student". Milroy 188–189. A chapter note for this paragraph says: "Goodrich, Thomas Eakins (1933) cat. nos. 19–30. Goodrich cat no. 23 (Study of a Girl's Head) is now in a private collection; no. 24 (Study of a Girl's Head) is in the Hirshhorn Museum; nos. 25–27 are in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and no. 30 (A Negress) is in the collection of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco." Adams, 149 is taken almost word-for-word from this thesis.
^Julie S. Berkowitz. "Adorn the Halls": History of the Art Collection at Thomas Jefferson University. Thomas Jefferson University, 1999, ISBN0-9674384-1-1. PAGE 140.
^Schoonover, Jametta Wright, ed. The Brinton Genealogy: A History of William Brinton who came from England to Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1984 and of his descendants. Trenton, New Jersey: MacCrellish & Quigley Company, 1925, 362.
^ abcdStudies for "The Fairman Rogers Four-in-hand", from Blouin Art Sales Index. The auction lists only Goodrich 137. However, Sewell, 1982, 68, depicts Goodrich 199 and 201, and shows the images in the Sotheby's listing.
^The Green Tree: highlights from the collection of the Mutual Assurance Company of Philadelphia. Schwarz, 2007. Available onlineArchived November 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
^Information accompanying photograph of the painting donated to the Chester County History Center by Sarah Ward (Brinton) Audenried, daughter of Dr. Brinton.
^"Prof. Barker was a chemist, and no doubt a learned man in his profession.— I think Mr. Eakins painted him because he was worthy to be remembered, it was not an order [commission]." —Mrs. Eakins to Clarence Cranmer, July 4, 1929, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
^"(9 of 23)". Cedarhurst.org. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved June 8, 2012.
^The Sewell C. Biggs Collection of American Art: A Catalogue. Volume II – Paintings and Sculpture. Biggs Museum of American Art, 2002. ISBN1-893287-05-X
Berger, Martin A. Man Made: Thomas Eakins and the Construction of Gilded Age Manhood. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 2000. ISBN978-0-520-22209-0
Bolger, Doreen; Cash, Sarah; et al. Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. Amon Carter Museum, 1996. ISBN0-88360-085-4
Braddock, Alan C. Thomas Eakins and the Cultures of Modernity. University of California Press, 2009. ISBN0-520-25520-8
Cooper, Helen A. Thomas Eakins: The Rowing Pictures. Yale University Art Gallery, 1996. ISBN0-300-06939-1
Foster, Kathleen A. Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Yale University Press, 1997. ISBN0-300-06174-9.
Goodrich, Lloyd. Thomas Eakins: His Life and Works. William Edwin Rudge Printing House. New York, 1933. Catalogue of Works. Pages 161–209.