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Thomas Eakins

Born: Philadelphia, PA, 25 July 1844
Died: Philadelphia, PA, 25 June 1916
Nationality: American

Background:

Son of a Scottish-Irish weaver

Studies:

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1862)

With Jean-Léon Gérôme at Ecole des Beaux-Arts (1866-69, Paris)

With sculptor Augustin-Alexandre Dumont

With portrait painter Léon Bonnat

Career:

1870 - Returns to Philadelphia after studying in Europe

1876 - Gross Clinic rejected from Centennial Exposition, but Dr Gross sponsors its exhibition in a medical pavilion

1882 - Becomes Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

1884 - Assists Eadweard Muybridge in motion studies at the University of Pennsylvania

1886 - Forced to resign as Director of Pennsylvania Academy

1889 - Commissioned to paint the Agnew Clinic by graduating class of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School

1901 - Wins prize at Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY

1904 - Wins prize at Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis, MO

1917 - Wemorial exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)

Travels:

Paris (1866-69); Spain (1869-70); Dakota Territory (1886)

Commissions from:

1889 - Graduating class of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School

Important Artworks:

The Swimming Hole, 1884-85 (Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth)

The Agnew Clinic, 1889 (Philadelphia Museum of Art)