Thomas Eakins

Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was a leading American realist—painter, photographer, sculptor, and influential teacher—best known for his uncompromising work from life.

Centered in Philadelphia from the 1870s onward, he created hundreds of portraits that collectively capture the city’s late-19th/early-20th-century intellectual world, while also making large, dynamic scenes set in real workplaces and public spaces (including surgical theaters).

Fascinated by the human body in motion and by new technologies, he became an early innovator in motion photography. His teaching career was highly impactful but derailed by behavioral and sexual scandals, and although he received limited official recognition while alive, he was later hailed as one of America’s most profound realist artists.