Thomas Eakins’ artistic methods never have been the subject of much debate. The artist created preparatory drawings, photographic studies, oil sketches, and modellos that survive in preparation for finished works, and he wrote a lengthy manuscript on perspective that carefully explains his approach to the formulation of pictorial space. The surfaces of his finished works rarely hide the marks of brushes, palette knives, carving tools, pencil, or wash. In addition to the self-evident process in …