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Foster, Kathleen A.

Thomas Eakins rediscovered : Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts / Kathleen A. Foster ; with contributions by Mark Bockrath ... [et al.]. - New Haven : Philadelphia : Yale University Press ; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, c1997. - xii, 480 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 29 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 463-466) and index.


Director's Foreword / Daniel Rosenfeld
Introduction: "Small Things That Meant Study"
pt. I. Learning To Be an Artist. 1. Home Life and Early Training. 2. Central High School, 1857-1861. 3. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1862-1866. 4. Gerome and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, 1866-1869. 5. A.-A. Dumont and Academic Sculpture, 1868-1869. 6. Bonnat and Spain, 1869-1870
pt. II. Medium and Method. 7. Drawing: Thinking Made Visible. 8. Oil Painting: The Material World. 9. Watercolor: Lessons from France and Spain. 10. Sculpture: The Legacy of the Ecole. 11. Photography: Science and Art
pt. III. Projects. 12. The Rowing Pictures: "A Passion for Perspective" 13. "Original and Studious Boating Scenes" 14. Art and History: William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River. 15. Locomotion: The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand, 1878-1880. 16. Gloucester Landscapes: "Camera Vision" and Impressionism. 17. Nudes: The Camera in Arcadia. 18. "A Little Trip to the West," cowritten with Cheryl Leibold. 19. Portraits: Case Studies Define a Method
Conclusion: Artist and Teacher: The Meaning of Academic Realism
Catalogue of Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection: Guide to the Catalogue
The Conservation of the Paintings / Mark Bockrath

More than fifty years ago, a treasury of studio material--including oil sketches, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and manuscripts--was rescued from the empty house of Thomas Eakins by a devoted student, Charles Bregler. Deemed worthless then, the "rubbish" Bregler reverently saved has only recently become recognized as an important source of information about the life and working habits of one of Americas greatest artists. This book is both a catalogue of the Bregler collection and a reassessment of Eakins's career as read through the newly discovered materials. Kathleen A. Foster builds on the strengths of the collection to characterize the training, teaching, and studio practices of a nineteenth-century academic realist. Tracing Eakins's artistic education, she looks to sources in both Philadelphia and Paris that shaped his seemingly uncontrived American style. Foster analyzes Eakins's habits as a draftsman, unlocking his famous perspective drawings to reveal his idiosyncratic practices. She examines his innovation as a watercolorist and photographer and describes his distinctive academic procedures in oil paint and clay. Foster then investigates a series of Eakins's best known projects, from the early sporting paintings to the late portraits, to explain the sequence of his method, the development of his imagery, and the meaning that emerges from the interaction of subject and technique. Published in association with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

ISBN: 0300061749 9780300061741

LCCN: 97008253

Subjects--Personal Names:
Eakins, Thomas, 1844-1916 --Catalogs.
Bregler, Charles--Art collections--Catalogs.

Subjects--Corporate Names:
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Subjects--Topical Terms:
Art--Private collections--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
Criticism and interpretation.

Index Terms--Genre/Form:
Catalogs.

LC Class. No.: N6537.E3 / A4 1997

Dewey Class. No.: 709.2 BRE / 3904