Thomas Eakins is well known today as a painter, but less recognized as a photographer. For approximately twenty years, between 1880 and 1900, he explored the medium, producing photographic portraits, preparatory studies for paintings, costumed and nude figure studies, as well as some scientific images. In the past knowledge about Eakins's photography was limited. This stemmed from his apparent disinterest in exhibiting or publishing the images; the Victorian view of nudity; and the intentional and unintentional suppression of many photographs both during his life and after his death.
The discovery of a large trove of his photographs in the mid-1980s revealed that, while he worked independently of Philadelphia's professional photographers, many of his photographs share their progressive style. Especially in his nude studies his work exhibits romantic overtones quite different from the straightforward realism of his painting.
Figure Studies
Around 1882, after an early concentration on portraits of family and friends, Eakins began posing models in carefully planned settings so that costumes, props and lighting work together to create a specific mood. Studies of women in classical costumes, often posed with casts of ancient statues, were made either in the studios of PAFA or in Eakins's home. Others, depicting women posed in 18th- and early-19th-century costumes, suggest the contemporary interest in historic recreations. Several of these photographs were made as preparatory studies for well-known paintings.
Nude Studies
In his teaching at PAFA and at the Philadelphia Arts Students' League, Eakins was resolutely committed to the study of human anatomy and to the use of nude models. This dedication resulted in numerous photographic studies posed both in the studio and in outdoor settings. Some of these served as teaching tools, while others seem to have been the result of personal aesthetic investigations.
This insistence (some might say obsession) on nude models contributed to the scandals that resulted in his dismissal from PAFA in 1886. The nude studies feature the highest degree of experimentation in composition, cropping, and printing. Whatever their purpose, these images of nude men and women are among the most evocative and artistic of Eakins's photographic production.