Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Eakins, Thomas

EAKINS, Thomas, artist, b. in Philadelphia, 25 July, 1844. He was graduated at the high school of Philadelphia, and went to Paris, where he received his art education at L'Ecole des beaux arts under Gérôme. He also studied in the atelier of Bonnat, and with the sculptor Dumont. After returning to Philadelphia, he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy, and afterward professor of painting and director of the Pennsylvania academy of fine arts. For several years he was teacher in the Brooklyn art guild, and lecturer on anatomy and perspective in the art student's league of New York. He is now professor in the art student's league of Philadelphia. He has painted many small pictures of domestic life in the early days of America, of American sporting and athletic games, studies of the American negroes, etc., which have been exhibited in the Paris salons, the National academy, New York, the Water-color society, American art association, and elsewhere. Among his noted pictures are “Dr. Gross in his Clinic”; “William Rush carving an Allegorical Figure”; “A Lady Singing”; “The Chess-Players”; “Mending the Net”; “The Writing-Master”; and “The Zither-Player.” He sent “The Chess-Players,” several portraits in oil, and the water-colors “Whistling for Plover” and “Base-Ball” to the Centennial exhibition in 1876.