Arcadia (Thomas Eakins)
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| Arcadia |
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| Thomas Eakins , around 1883 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 98.1 x 114.3 cm |
| The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
_-_1883_-_Nude_study_for_Arcadia.jpg)
Arcadia is a painting by the American painter Thomas Eakins and is one of his few nudes. The painting dates from around 1883 and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York . The painting was a gift from Thomas Eakins to his friend and colleague William Merritt Chase . The painting initially had no title and was never shown publicly during Thomas Eakins' lifetime. It was not until after the death of Thomas Eakins in 1916 that his widow Susan gave the painting the name Arcadia . The Metropolitan Museum of Art received the painting in 1967 from the estate of Adelaide Milton de Groot.
description
The 98.1 high and 114.3 centimeter wide oil painting shows three young people, two of whom are lying on the grass and one is standing up making music. The sex of the three young people can hardly be determined. Only the hair tied in a bun at the nape of the neck shows that the figure lying in front is a girl. In contrast to most of Thomas Eakins' works, no observations from everyday life are depicted here, but an ideal pastoral landscape.
As with most of Thomas Eakins' works, Arcadia is a portrait. The figure lying on the floor playing the pan flute is one of his nephews. Either one of his nieces or his future wife was the model for the figure of the reclining female. The person standing is one of his students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts . The models posed on one of the artist's sisters farm in Avondale , Pennsylvania .
Classification in the complete work
The representation of the human body is of central importance in Thomas Eakins' oeuvre. One of his most famous paintings is Swimming , a 92.4 × 69.5 centimeter oil painting, which shows six men on and in a body of water, bathing naked and sunbathing. The number of nudes in Eakin's works is small, however. The naked body plays a very important role, especially in his photographic work. Paintings like Swimming and Arcadia were preceded by photographic studies.
literature
- Sabine Schulze (Ed.): Gardens: Order - Inspiration - Luck , Städel Museum , Frankfurt am Main & Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-7757-1870-7