Page "Thomas Eakins" Paragraph 31

In 1876, Eakins completed a portrait of Dr. John Brinton, surgeon of the Philadelphia Hospital, and famed for his Civil War service.

Done in a more informal setting than The Gross Clinic, it was a personal favorite of Eakins, and The Art Journal proclaimed " it is in every respect a more favorable example of this artist's abilities than his much-talked-of composition representing a dissecting room.

" Other outstanding examples of his portraits include The Agnew Clinic ( 1889 ), Eakins ' most important commission and largest painting, which depicted another eminent American surgeon, Dr. David Hayes Agnew, performing a mastectomy ; The Dean's Roll Call ( 1899 ), featuring Dr. James W. Holland, and Professor Leslie W. Miller ( 1901 ), portraits of educators standing as if addressing an audience ; a portrait of Frank Hamilton Cushing ( ca.

1895 ), in which the prominent ethnologist is seen performing an incantation in a Zuñi pueblo ; Professor Henry A. Rowland ( 1897 ), a brilliant scientist whose study of spectroscopy revolutionized his field ; Antiquated Music ( 1900 ), in which Mrs. William D. Frishmuth is shown seated amidst her collection of musical instruments ; and The Concert Singer ( 1890 – 92 ), for which Eakins asked Weda Cook to sing " O rest in the Lord ", so that he could study the muscles of her throat and mouth.

In order to replicate the proper deployment of a baton, Eakins enlisted an orchestra conductor to pose for the hand seen in the lower left-hand corner of the painting.