Eakins and Asepsis (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1)

A couple weeks ago, while zipping through the Metropolitan Museum’s galleries taking photos of favorites, I spotted this 9-inch bronze in a glass case in the American Wing galleries.

Samuel Aloysius Murray, Thomas Eakins, 1907; cast 1923. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1923. Photo: MetMuseum.org
Samuel Aloysius Murray, Thomas Eakins, 1907; cast 1923. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1923. Photo: MetMuseum.org

What’s this painter doing sitting cross-legged on the floor? My first thought was that it was Jackson Pollock or one of the many 20th-c. artists who think using an easel is passé and/or pretentious. But the pose of this guy and his intent look captured my attention, so I stopped to read the label. (I don’t read labels on objects that bore me: why would I?)

It turns out this is Thomas Eakins, one of America’s best-known 19th-c. painters, and the reason he’s sitting on the floor is that the painting he was working on was 7 x 11 feet: too large for an easel. The finished work is at the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art: The Agnew Clinic, 1889.

Now here’s the bit that grabs me, as a historian as well as art historian. Eakins is most famous for The Gross Clinic, 1875. If you’ve had a course in the history of art, you’ve probably seen this one.

Eakins, The Gross Clinic, 1875. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Wikipedia
Eakins, The Gross Clinic, 1875. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Wikipedia

The Agnew Clinic, which Eakins was painting when Murray sculpted the MMA’s bronze statuette, was painted in 1889 – after Lister proved to the medical community that sterilization saved lives. Wow!

Eakins, The Agnew Clinic, 1889. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Wikipedia
Eakins, The Agnew Clinic, 1889. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photo: Wikipedia

More

  • For more about Eakins and these two paintings, visit the University of Pennsylvania’s site.
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