“Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) was a talented artist and the founder of American realistic painting. Unlike many of his colleagues, he did not try to show photography its “place” — instead, he mastered the technical aspects of this new art form at that time and used it successfully. It is not known how and where Eakins learned to take photographs, when he acquired his first camera, etc. But in the 1880s, photography occupied an important place in his life.

More than 1,000 negatives and prints by the artist have survived to this day: studies of the human body and gestures, photographs of students and models (clothed and nude), self-portraits, single and group portraits of family members and friends. He rarely used photography as a basis for a future painting; for him, it was rather a way to explore the human body. His early photographs capture fleeting gestures and poses; later, he began to create more and more complex compositions that can easily compete in artistic value with his own watercolors.

While teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Eakins successfully used photography in the teaching process; students usually acted as both photographers and models. At that time, such a practice was not generally accepted and not everyone approved of the talented artist’s experiments. In 1886, Eakins was fired for using a completely nude male model in a class where students of both sexes studied.

As often happens, recognition came to the artist after his death. Thus, his famous painting “Gross Clinic” painted in 1895 brought its creator $ 200. In 2006, the same painting was acquired for joint use by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for $ 68 million. Thomas Eakins’ photographs, which he, of course, did not try to sell or exhibit during his lifetime, have taken a worthy niche in the history of photography. His works are included in the permanent collections of leading museums and are acquired by art galleries and private collectors around the world.”