Artist, Photographer. A realist painter, he is now widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists in American art history, even though his work received little recognition during his lifetime. He has also been credited with introduced the camera to the American art studio. Born Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins, his father was a writing master and calligraphy teacher. By the age of 12 he demonstrated skill in precise line drawing, perspective, and the use of a grid to lay out a careful design, skills he later applied to his art. As a child he enjoyed the outdoors and athletics, activities that were later the subject of many of his paintings. In 1861 he studied drawing and anatomy at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and attended courses in anatomy and dissection at Jefferson Medical College from 1864 to 1865 and afterwards, he followed his father's profession. In 1866 he travelled to Europe and studied art until 1870, most notably in Paris, France with French realist painter Jean-Leon Gerome, being only his second American pupil. In 1869 he travelled to Seville, Spain where he painted "Carmelita Requena", a portrait of a seven-year-old gypsy dancer. That same year he attempted his first large oil painting, "A Street Scene in Seville", wherein he first dealt with the complications of a scene observed outside the studio. Although he failed to matriculate in a formal degree program and had showed no works in the European salons, he succeeded in absorbing the techniques and methods of French and Spanish masters, and he began to formulate his artistic vision. His first works upon his return from Europe included a large group of rowing scenes, eleven oils and watercolors in all, of which the first and most famous is "Max Schmitt in a Single Scull" (1871; also known as "The Champion Single Sculling"). During the 1870s he painted a series of domestic Victorian interiors, often with his father, his sisters or friends as the subjects, including "Home Scene" (1871), "Kathrin" (1872), "Elizabeth Crowell and her Dog" (1874), "Elizabeth at the Piano" (1875), and "The Chess Players" (1876). In 1876 he returned to the Pennsylvania Academy to teach as a volunteer after the opening of the school's new Frank Furness designed building, became a salaried professor in 1878, and rose to director in 1882. There was no drawing from antique casts, and students received only a short study in charcoal, followed quickly by their introduction to painting, in order to grasp subjects in true color as soon as practical. He encouraged students to use photography as an aid to understand anatomy and the study of motion, and disallowed prize competitions. By the early 1880s the Academy's course of study was the most "liberal and advanced in the world". His controversial teaching methods created tensions between him and the Academy's board of directors and in 1886 he was ultimately forced to resign for removing the loincloth of a male model in a class where female students were present. The dismissal was a major setback for him, and he struggled to protect his name against rumors and false charges, had bouts of ill health, and suffered a humiliation which he felt for the rest of his life. His popularity amongst the students was such that a number of them broke with the Academy and formed the Art Students' League of Philadelphia (1886 to 1893), where he subsequently instructed and it was there that he met the student, Samuel Murray, who would become his protégé and lifelong friend. He also lectured and taught at a number of other schools, including the Art Students League of New York, the National Academy of Design in New York City, New York, the Cooper Union in Manhattan, New York City, and the Art Students' Guild in Washington DC. In 1895 he was dismissed by the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia for again using a fully nude male model and by 1898 he gradually withdrew from teaching. In the late 1870s he was introduced to the photographic motion studies of English photographer Eadweard Muybridge, particularly the equine studies, and became interested in using the camera to study sequential movement. After obtaining a camera in 1880 several paintings, such as "A May Morning in the Park" (1880, also referred to as "The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand"), "Mending the Net" (1881), and "Arcadia" (1883), are known to have been derived at least in part from his photographs. During the mid-1880s he worked briefly alongside Muybridge in the latter's photographic studio at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He soon performed his own independent motion studies, also usually involving the nude figure, and even developed his own technique for capturing movement on film. In 1883 he began his so-called "Naked Series," which were nude photos of students and professional models taken to show real human anatomy from several specific angles and were often hung and displayed for study at the school. Later, less regimented poses were taken indoors and out, of men, women, and children. In 1884 he married Susan Hannah Macdowell who had become one of his students at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. His other noted paintings include "The Biglin Brothers Racing" (1872), "Portrait of Professor Benjamin H. Rand" (1874), "The Gross Clinic" (1875), "Portrait of Dr. John Brinton" (1876), "The Swimming Hole" (1884 to 1885), "The Agnew Clinic" (1889), "Miss Amelia Van Buren" (circa 1890), "The Concert Singer" (1890 to 1892), "A Portrait of Frank Hamilton Cushing" (circa 1895), "The Dean's Roll Call" (1899), "Wrestlers" (1899), "Portrait of Professor William S. Forbes" (1905), and "William Rush and His Model" (1908). In 1891 he collaborated with his friend, sculptor William Rudolf O'Donovan on the commission to create bronze equestrian reliefs of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. In 1902 he was made a National Academician. He died at the age of 71. The year following his death, he was honored with a memorial retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts followed suit. His wife did much to preserve his reputation, including gifting the Philadelphia Museum of Art with more than fifty of her husband's oil paintings. In 1967 his "The Biglin Brothers Racing" was reproduced on a US postage stamp. His "The Gross Clinic" is displayed alternately at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Artist, Photographer. A realist painter, he is now widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists in American art history, even though his work received little recognition during his lifetime. He has also been credited with introduced the camera to the American art studio. Born Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins, his father was a writing master and calligraphy teacher. By the age of 12 he demonstrated skill in precise line drawing, perspective, and the use of a grid to lay out a careful design, skills he later applied to his art. As a child he enjoyed the outdoors and athletics, activities that were later the subject of many of his paintings. In 1861 he studied drawing and anatomy at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and attended courses in anatomy and dissection at Jefferson Medical College from 1864 to 1865 and afterwards, he followed his father's profession. In 1866 he travelled to Europe and studied art until 1870, most notably in Paris, France with French realist painter Jean-Leon Gerome, being only his second American pupil. In 1869 he travelled to Seville, Spain where he painted "Carmelita Requena", a portrait of a seven-year-old gypsy dancer. That same year he attempted his first large oil painting, "A Street Scene in Seville", wherein he first dealt with the complications of a scene observed outside the studio. Although he failed to matriculate in a formal degree program and had showed no works in the European salons, he succeeded in absorbing the techniques and methods of French and Spanish masters, and he began to formulate his artistic vision. His first works upon his return from Europe included a large group of rowing scenes, eleven oils and watercolors in all, of which the first and most famous is "Max Schmitt in a Single Scull" (1871; also known as "The Champion Single Sculling"). During the 1870s he painted a series of domestic Victorian interiors, often with his father, his sisters or friends as the subjects, including "Home Scene" (1871), "Kathrin" (1872), "Elizabeth Crowell and her Dog" (1874), "Elizabeth at the Piano" (1875), and "The Chess Players" (1876). In 1876 he returned to the Pennsylvania Academy to teach as a volunteer after the opening of the school's new Frank Furness designed building, became a salaried professor in 1878, and rose to director in 1882. There was no drawing from antique casts, and students received only a short study in charcoal, followed quickly by their introduction to painting, in order to grasp subjects in true color as soon as practical. He encouraged students to use photography as an aid to understand anatomy and the study of motion, and disallowed prize competitions. By the early 1880s the Academy's course of study was the most "liberal and advanced in the world". His controversial teaching methods created tensions between him and the Academy's board of directors and in 1886 he was ultimately forced to resign for removing the loincloth of a male model in a class where female students were present. The dismissal was a major setback for him, and he struggled to protect his name against rumors and false charges, had bouts of ill health, and suffered a humiliation which he felt for the rest of his life. His popularity amongst the students was such that a number of them broke with the Academy and formed the Art Students' League of Philadelphia (1886 to 1893), where he subsequently instructed and it was there that he met the student, Samuel Murray, who would become his protégé and lifelong friend. He also lectured and taught at a number of other schools, including the Art Students League of New York, the National Academy of Design in New York City, New York, the Cooper Union in Manhattan, New York City, and the Art Students' Guild in Washington DC. In 1895 he was dismissed by the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia for again using a fully nude male model and by 1898 he gradually withdrew from teaching. In the late 1870s he was introduced to the photographic motion studies of English photographer Eadweard Muybridge, particularly the equine studies, and became interested in using the camera to study sequential movement. After obtaining a camera in 1880 several paintings, such as "A May Morning in the Park" (1880, also referred to as "The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand"), "Mending the Net" (1881), and "Arcadia" (1883), are known to have been derived at least in part from his photographs. During the mid-1880s he worked briefly alongside Muybridge in the latter's photographic studio at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He soon performed his own independent motion studies, also usually involving the nude figure, and even developed his own technique for capturing movement on film. In 1883 he began his so-called "Naked Series," which were nude photos of students and professional models taken to show real human anatomy from several specific angles and were often hung and displayed for study at the school. Later, less regimented poses were taken indoors and out, of men, women, and children. In 1884 he married Susan Hannah Macdowell who had become one of his students at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. His other noted paintings include "The Biglin Brothers Racing" (1872), "Portrait of Professor Benjamin H. Rand" (1874), "The Gross Clinic" (1875), "Portrait of Dr. John Brinton" (1876), "The Swimming Hole" (1884 to 1885), "The Agnew Clinic" (1889), "Miss Amelia Van Buren" (circa 1890), "The Concert Singer" (1890 to 1892), "A Portrait of Frank Hamilton Cushing" (circa 1895), "The Dean's Roll Call" (1899), "Wrestlers" (1899), "Portrait of Professor William S. Forbes" (1905), and "William Rush and His Model" (1908). In 1891 he collaborated with his friend, sculptor William Rudolf O'Donovan on the commission to create bronze equestrian reliefs of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. In 1902 he was made a National Academician. He died at the age of 71. The year following his death, he was honored with a memorial retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts followed suit. His wife did much to preserve his reputation, including gifting the Philadelphia Museum of Art with more than fifty of her husband's oil paintings. In 1967 his "The Biglin Brothers Racing" was reproduced on a US postage stamp. His "The Gross Clinic" is displayed alternately at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/310/thomas-eakins: accessed
), memorial page for Thomas Eakins (25 Jul 1844–25 Jun 1916), Find a Grave Memorial ID 310, citing Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia,
Philadelphia County,
Pennsylvania,
USA;
Maintained by Find a Grave.
Add Photos for Thomas Eakins
Fulfill Photo Request for Thomas Eakins
Photo Request Fulfilled
Thank you for fulfilling this photo request. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request
There is an open photo request for this memorial
Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request?
Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s).
Oops, something didn't work. Close this window, and upload the photo(s) again.
Make sure that the file is a photo. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced.
All photos uploaded successfully, click on the <b>Done button</b> to see the photos in the gallery.
General photo guidelines:
Photos larger than 8.0 MB will be optimized and reduced.
Each contributor can upload a maximum of 5 photos for a memorial.
A memorial can have a maximum of 20 photos from all contributors.
The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional 10 photos (for a total of 30 on the memorial).
Include gps location with grave photos where possible.
No animated GIFs, photos with additional graphics (borders, embellishments.)
You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial.
Memorial Photos
This is a carousel with slides. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel.
Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried.
Show Map
If the memorial includes GPS coordinates, simply click 'Show Map' to view the gravesite location within the cemetery. If no GPS coordinates are available, you can contribute by adding them if you know the precise location.
Photos
For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab.
Photos Tab
All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer.
Flowers
Flowers added to the memorial appear on the bottom of the memorial or here on the Flowers tab. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button.
Family Members
Family members linked to this person will appear here.
Related searches
Use the links under See more… to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc.
Sponsor This Memorial
Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. Previously sponsored memorials or famous memorials will not have this option.
Share
Share this memorial using social media sites or email.
Save to
Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print.
Edit or Suggest Edit
Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager.
Have Feedback
Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you.
You may not upload any more photos to this memorial
"Unsupported file type"
Uploading...
Waiting...
Success
Failed
This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has photos
This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded photos to this memorial
This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has photos
This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded photos to this memorial
Invalid File Type
Uploading 1 Photo
Uploading 2 Photos
1 Photo Uploaded
2 Photos Uploaded
Added by
GREAT NEWS! There is 1 volunteer for this cemetery.
Sorry! There are no volunteers for this cemetery. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request.
Enter numeric value
Enter memorial Id
Year should not be greater than current year
Invalid memorial
Duplicate entry for memorial
You have chosen this person to be their own family member.
Reported!
This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates.
0% Complete
Saved
Sign in or Register
Sign in to Find a Grave
Sign-in to link to existing account
There is a problem with your email/password.
There is a problem with your email/password.
There is a problem with your email/password.
We encountered an unknown problem. Please wait a few minutes and try again. If the problem persists contact Find a Grave.
We’ve updated the security on the site. Please reset your password.
Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. Please contact Find a Grave at [email protected] if you need help resetting your password.
This account has been disabled. If you have questions, please contact [email protected]
This account has been disabled. If you have questions, please contact [email protected]
Email not found
Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person.
Sign in to your existing Find a Grave account. You’ll only have to do this once—after your accounts are connected, you can sign in using your Ancestry sign in or your Find a Grave sign in.
We found an existing Find a Grave account associated with your email address. Sign in below with your Find a Grave credentials to link your Ancestry account. After your accounts are connected you can sign in using either account.
Please enter your email to sign in.
Please enter your password to sign in.
Please enter your email and password to sign in.
There is a problem with your email/password.
A system error has occurred. Please try again later.
A password reset email has been sent to EmailID. If you don't see an email, please check your spam folder.
We encountered an unknown problem. Please wait a few minutes and try again. If the problem persists contact Find a Grave.
Password Reset
Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code.
Registration Options
Welcome to Find a Grave
Create your free account by choosing an option below.
or
Ancestry account link
To create your account, Ancestry will share your name and email address with Find a Grave. To continue choose an option below.
or
If you already have a Find a Grave account, please sign in to link to Ancestry®.
New Member Registration
Email is mandatory
Email and Password are mandatory
This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. Resend Activation Email
Your password is not strong enough
Invalid Email
You must agree to Terms and Conditions
Account already exists
Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox
Internal Server error occurred
If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map
You must select an email preference
We have sent you an activation email
Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters.
We just emailed an activation code to
Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account.
cemeteries found in will be saved to your photo volunteer list.
cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list.
cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list.
Within 5 miles of your location.
Within 5 kilometers of your location.
0 cemeteries found in .
0 cemeteries found.
Add a cemetery to fulfill photo requests
You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below.
Search above to list available cemeteries.
Getting location…
Loading...
Loading...
No cemeteries found
Find a Grave Video Tutorials
Default Language
Translation on Find a Grave is an ongoing project. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [email protected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. Thanks for your help!
Preferred Language
We have set your language to based on information from your browser.