Thomas Eakins with His Boat Paintings
Thursday, February 28th, 2008Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) studied in Paris in the 1860s. He has absorbed many art styles there. Eakins is famous with paintings of boat racers. In The Biglin Brothers Racing, he captures a sense of cinematic action. You feel the strength of the rowers, yet the surrounding scene is peaceful.
Eakins was a very versatile master of many genres. His Agnew Clinic, a painting of a surgical operation performed on a woman before the auditorium of by medical students is a probing study of human character. He examines the personalities of the medical students as carefully as the surgeons examine the body on the operating table.