Thomas Eakins (1844–1916) is one of the most fascinating and important personalities in the history of American art. His memorable and much-loved scenes of rowing, sailing, and boxing as well as his deeply moving portraits are renowned for their vibrant realism and dramatic intensity. This insightful book, published in conjunction with a major exhibition on the life and career of Eakins—the first in twenty years—presents a fresh perspective on the artist and his remarkable accomplishments.

Illustrated with more than 250 of Eakins’s most significant paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculpture, the book features essays by prominent scholars who place his art in the context of the history and culture of late nineteenth-century Philadelphia, where he lived. The contributors also discuss how Eakins applied his French academic training to subjects that were distinctly American and part of his own immediate and complex experience. Eakins’s own photographs, which he used as part of his unique creative process, are also examined for the first time in the full context of his life’s work.

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