About this Book

One of the foremost American painters of the nineteenth century, Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) also was a pioneer in the fields of artistic and scientific photography. Although most of his photographs relate to his private life, he also used photography to prepare for his painting and sculpture projects to research anatomy and locomotion and as an expressive medium in its own right. His platinum prints broke new ground in photographic printing but the most innovative aspect of his work was his emphasis on the nude, then part of the French repertoire of academic visual studies but rarely encountered in the United States. Eakins and the Photograph is the first catalogue of the Eakins photographs in the Pennsylvania Academy's Charles Bregler collection, which includes about three fourths of Eakins's photographic output. The book describes the entire collection of 648 images, reproducing 173 black-and-white photographs, 52 duotones, and a portfolio section of 16 tritones. This is the first book to place Eakins's photographic works (and those of his circle) within the context of the transitional era between 1880 and 1900, when photography moved from the realm of commerce to that of art.