Happy Birthday, Thomas Eakins

John Biglin In A Single

Today is the birthday of Thomas Eakins, the great 19th Century American painting heavyweight, born this day in 1844 in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Museum has an on-line exhibit covering the breadth of Eakins' portraiture, sports painting, studies of the body and so-on.

Most people who take up crew - especially those who find themselves rowing on the Schuylkyll, sooner or later learn about Eakins' interest in the sport and many of us had the obligatory prints stuck up on our college dorm room walls. The fact of the matter is that the man had a much broader range of subjects and interests than this, but it is what I always remember him for. Indeed, when looking at one of Eakins' rowing paintings, I usually find that my hands and knees start aching spontaniously.