Swimming
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| Swimming |
|---|
| Thomas Eakins , 1885 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 69.5 x 92.4 cm |
| Amon Carter Museum |
Swimming (or Swimming Hole ) is an oil painting by Thomas Eakins from 1885. It shows Eakins, some of his students, and his swimming dog. Parts of the US homosexual movement consider the painting to be evidence of Eakins' assumed homosexuality. The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth acquired it in 1990 for $ 10 million.
Swimming is considered to be one of the great masterpieces of American art. Lloyd Goodrich, Eakins 'first and foremost biographer, wrote of the picture that it was Eakins' best treatment of nudity and his most finely constructed outdoor scene.
description
The 92.4 × 69.5 centimeter oil painting shows six men at and in a body of water who bathe naked and sunbathe. The only visible artifact is the stone platform, which is obviously man-made but still serves no discernible purpose. On the other hand, there is no such thing as a bathhouse or discarded clothing. The swimmer in the right foreground is Thomas Eakins. His dog Harry , a setter , swims near the platform. The other persons depicted are by name well-known students and acquaintances of Eakins.
Various authors have recently pointed out that Eakins has arranged the group so that its members are endowed with an "intangible fig leaf " through their position .
From left to right the figures show a change from resting to sitting to standing to jumping into the water. There is no role model in art history for the figure of the jumper. Most of those portrayed focus their attention on the dog.
Marc Simpson, one of the authors of the book Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture, notes that Eakins disregards the laws of nature in the picture and lets the light come in, sometimes directly and sometimes diffusely. As a student in Paris Eakins had written: “In a big picture you can see what o'clock it is afternoon or morning if it is hot or cold winter or summer & what kind of people are there & what they are doing & why they are doing it. ” (“ On a large picture you can see what time it is, afternoon or morning, whether it is hot or cold, winter or summer, and what kind of people are on it and what they are doing and why they are doing it do. ”) Swimming shows that Eakins' views on this had changed in 1885. Nevertheless, The Arts wrote in 1921:
“I think you will feel that the dramatis personæ of the swimming pool are real men and boys. Despite their nudity we recognize them as belonging to the early seventies. There is something about the way they wear their hair which gives the date. The man half lying on the dock is unmistakably an American. It is an invalid statement of historical fact. So men looked and so men acted in these our United States during the lifetime of Thomas Eakins. ”
“I think you will feel that the dramatis personæ of the swimming pool are real men and boys. Despite their nudity, we can see that they belong to the early seventies. There is something about the way they wear their hair that shows the time period. The half-lying man is undoubtedly an American. That is an invaluable historical testimony. This is how men looked and behaved in this United States of ours during the lifetime of Thomas Eakins. "
Emergence
In 1884, Thomas Eakins was a professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, a recognized teacher in the American art world. His reputation as an artist was not so well established. Edward Hornor Coates, the new chairman of the academy, suggested at this point that Eakins should make a painting on Coates' order. Coates commissioned him in 1885 for a fee of $ 800, the highest price for an Eakins painting to date. The order was intended to demonstrate Coates' confidence in Eakins.
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It is unknown whether and what influence Coates had on the selection of the motif. Eakin's own training as well as his orientation as a teacher placed great emphasis on the human body and so only a portrait came into question for the Coates picture. In particular, Eakins was able to demonstrate his skills with an act. He was faced with the problem of finding a subject for his picture in which the audience would accept the nudity of the sitter.
In the years before 1885, Eakins had made a series of photo studies that would eventually lead to the Arcadia pictures and reliefs. These studies also influenced Swimming , which has echoes of the golden age motif.
After Eakins had made a mental picture of the work to be carried out, an oil sketch followed, which was made before July 31, 1884 near Bryn Mawr at the point that is now designated as Dove Lake on Mill Creek. Shortly afterwards, Eakins went to the swimming area with his models, some of his students, and made another oil study. If pencil drawings existed at all, they have not been preserved. All the important elements of the finished painting are already contained in this oil sketch, but the differences to the finished work are unusually large for Eakins.
Perhaps on the same day further oil sketches were made, each dealing with individual elements of the picture. Preserved photo studies can also have been created on this occasion. While in Eakins' earlier works the landscape was constructed precisely in perspective and precisely followed reality, this is no longer the case with Swimming .
When the painting was restored in 1993, few guidelines were found that Eakins used to position the people. For the figure of the jumper, however, he had made and studied a model that was lost in 1938. Eakins also attached particular importance to the reflections in the water. He himself said on this subject: "There is so much beauty in the reflections, that it is generally worthwhile to try to get them right."
The painting was completed in October 1885 when it was shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts exhibition.
Classification in the overall work
Eakins is known for his knowledge of anatomy and his ability to represent the naked body. This contrasts with an extremely small number of files in Eakins' works. Before Swimming , the athlete pictures were created, which show models in light but nevertheless clothed clothes, the Arkadia works such as Arcadia , the portrait of William Rush with a nude model, a crucifixion scene and the Gross Clinic . Long after Swimming , there were other depictions of William Rush with his model and another picture of a clinic.
In the time before Swimming , Eakins worked partly together with Eadweard Muybridge , partly in competition with him, with the representation of movement in photo series . One result of this work was the painting A May Morning in the Park (also The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand ), which was commissioned by Coates' predecessor Rogers and shows carriage horses in motion. With the figure of the jumping one can also find the representation of movement in Swimming , but for the last time in Eakins' work.
Like practically all of Eakins' works, Swimming is a portrait . The individual persons shown can be named by name.
reception
The picture was first shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' annual exhibition in October 1885. The reviews of Swimming were rather negative. During the exhibition, Coates returned the painting to Eakins and received The Pathetic Song in exchange .
In 1917, however, the painting was the focus of the retrospective on Eakins' death. In 1921 the commentary quoted above appeared in The Arts . Since then, there have been numerous positive reviews of the painting, which is now considered one of the masterpieces of American painting. In 1974 Gordon Hendricks first raised the question of sexuality in this painting and the accompanying photographs. He writes: "Some have Considered examined photographs as evidence did Eakins, if not homosexual or bisexual, which at least homoerotic." ( "Some have considered evidence such photographs that Eakins, if not homosexual or bisexual, but at least homoerotic. “) However, he immediately dismisses the idea: “ But the artist would undoubtedly have done the same thing with his women students if such a thing had been possible. ” ( “ But the artist would undoubtedly have done the same with his female students, if so something would have been possible. ”) Since then, speculation about Eakins' homosexuality has continued.
Identity of those portrayed
The swimmer in the lower right corner of the picture is Thomas Eakins himself. The dog who also swims is his setter Harry .
The person lying on the left of the picture is Talcott Williams (* 1849 in Abeih in what is now Lebanon ; † 1928). He came to the United States at the age of 16, where he graduated from Amherst College in 1873. He then worked for newspapers in New York and San Francisco. From 1881 he wrote for the press in Philadelphia for over 30 years and became its managing editor and associate editor . He distinguished himself as Philadelphia's leading critic and accompanied numerous artists in their first steps. His interests also included the University of Pennsylvania's new museum and archeology department. Williams raised money for both of them and went on an expedition. In 1912 he became the first director of the School of Journalism at Columbia University , established by Joseph Pulitzer . In addition to Frank Moore Colby , he was an editor of the New International Encyclopedia and in 1913 president of the American Conference of Teachers of Journalism . His friends included Shakespeare expert Horace Howard Furness, author S. Weir Mitchell , a friend of Eakins, surgeon D. Hayes Agnew, whom Eakins portrayed at the Agnew Clinic , and William Pepper, a supporter of Muybridge's serial photography. Like Coates and Walt Whitman , Williams was a member of the Contemporary Club .
The one standing in the water is Benjamin Fox (* around 1865, † around 1900). Little is known about him. He appears only this once in an Eakins painting or photograph. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1883 to 1884 and 1888, where he exhibited a painting called Sympathy in 1888 , for which he received the prestigious Charles Toppan Prize . In 1889 he had a studio in Philadelphia, but his success was short-lived. Today none of his works have survived. Fox was treated for some time in the Philadelphia Hospital for acute mania in 1892. After 1897 his track is lost.
The seated person is John Laurie Wallace (* 1864 in Garvagh, Ireland, † June 30, 1953 in Omaha). He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1879 to 1882 . Wallace was one of Eakins' models and photographer. On the recommendation of Eakins, he painted cattle barons and their families in Texas and New Mexico. From 1885 he taught art in Chicago and, with the support of Eakins, became President of the Chicago Society of Artists . In 1891, Wallace went to Omaha and became director of the newly established Western Art Association and one of the founders of the Omaha Art Guild . He exhibited in a number of solo exhibitions and earned a reputation as a portrait painter. Wallace also made an undated painting titled Swimming Hole .
The one standing is Jesse Godley (* 1862 in Philadelphia; † January 30, 1889). He was a direct descendant of John Hart, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1883 to 1884 and 1886. In 1887 he first became an assistant in a decoration company and later one of the partners, which then traded as Stephens, Cooper, and Godley . He married one of the Eakins students and the couple had a son. Godley died of typhus.
The jumper is George Reynolds (* around 1839 in Ireland; † 1889). He joined the army in 1861 and experienced an eventful fate: in 1863 he was convicted and demoted by the court martial, but in 1864 he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for conquering the flag of Virginia at the Battle of Winchester. After serving in the army, he began to make a name for himself as an artist in New York, but nothing is known about his training. In 1881 and 1883 he exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His wife died in 1882. He then studied at the Academy until 1886 and became a loyal friend of Eakins. Reynolds' works appeared in printed publications both during his lifetime and posthumously.
Provenance
From October 29, 1885 to December 10, 1885, Swimming was shown (under this title) at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as the property of Edward H. Coates. It returned to the property of Eakins during the exhibition. In 1886, the painting was exhibited as The Swimmers in Louisville, Kentucky, and priced at $ 800. In 1887 it was exhibited again as Swimming in Chicago. The painting then remained in the Eakins household for 30 years without being exhibited. The painting was the focus of the Eakins retrospective in New York in 1917, after the death of Eakins, and was named The Swimming Hole . In the same year the exhibition in Philadelphia followed. Four years later, The Old Swimming Hole was exhibited again in New York. In 1923 it was seen again in New York and Minneapolis.
The Friends of Art raised $ 700 in Fort Worth in 1925 and bought the painting for the Fort Worth Art Association from Eakins' widow Susan . For many years the painting was on display in the Fort Worth Public Library. Eventually the museum found its own building and then evolved into the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth . Even after it was bought in 1925, the painting was repeatedly loaned out for exhibitions: for example in 1930 in New York and Philadelphia, again in New York in 1935, in Paris in 1938 and in numerous other cities in the years since, including several German cities in 1953. The Amon Carter Museum opened in 1961, and in 1988 the two museums agreed on mutual loans. This is how Eakins' work came to the Amon Carter Museum .
The Modern Art Museum decided in 1990 to auction the painting at Sotheby’s . A price of 10 to 15 million US dollars was expected. However, following protests from the local population, the painting was withdrawn from auction and sold to the Amon Carter Museum for $ 10 million . The purchase price was paid by various foundations and 5000 individuals. The sale of T-shirts with the swimming motif also contributed to this.
literature
- Doreen Bolger and Sarah Cash: Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, 1996, ISBN 0-88360-085-4 .
Web links
- Doreen Bolger, Claire M. Barry: Thomas Eakins's 'Swimming Hole.' - 1885 painting in the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. In: Magazine Antiques, March 1994, online at findarticles.com
- Doreen Bolger, Claire M. Barry: Thomas Eakins' “The Swimming Hole”. In: Resource Library Magazine, May 13, 2004, online at tfaoi.com
- Rita Reif: Fort Worth Strives to Keep Eakins's 'Swimming Hole' in The New York Times, April 21, 1990
- Michael Kimmelman: An Eakins Classic Stays In Texas in The New York Times, June 16, 1990
- Suzanne Slesin: In Texas, A Portable Eakins in The New York Times, July 26, 1990
Footnotes
- ↑ a b Rick Stewart: Foreword and Acknowledgments. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture , vii, 1996.
- ↑ Lloyd Goodrich: Thomas Eakins. Volume 1, ISBN 0-674-88490-6 , 1982, p. 239.
- ^ A b c Marc Simpson: Swimming Through Time: An Introduction. In: Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 1.
- ^ William Innes Homer : Thomas Eakins His Life and Art, Abbeville Press Publishers, New York London, 2002, ISBN 0-7892-0774-5 , p. 36.
- ^ Marc Simpson: Swimming Through Time: An Introduction. In: Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 2.
- ↑ Kathleen A. Foster: The Making and Meaning of Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 13.
- ↑ Doreen Bolger: "Kindly Relations": Edward Hornor Coates and Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 36.
- ↑ Kathleen A. Foster: The Making and Meaning of Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 14.
- ↑ Kathleen A. Foster: The Making and Meaning of Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 17.
- ^ A b c Kathleen A. Foster: The Making and Meaning of Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 19.
- ↑ Kathleen A. Foster: The Making and Meaning of Swimming. In: Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 24.
- ^ Gordon Hendricks: The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins, New York, Grossman Publishers, ISBN 0-670-42795-0 , 1974, p. 160.
- ^ Sarah Cash: Biographies of Models for Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. P. 119f., 1996.
- ^ A b Sarah Cash: Biographies of Models for Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 117.
- ^ Sarah Cash: Biographies of Models for Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. 1996, p. 118.
- ^ Sarah Cash: Biographies of Models for Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. P. 117f., 1996.
- ^ A b Milan R. Hughston and Sarah Cash: Exhibition History and Bibliography for Swimming. in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture. P. 123ff., 1996.
