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Thomas Eakins

Rear Admiral George W. Melville, 1905

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 101.6 x 68.5 cm (40 x 26 15/16 in.)

framed: 115.6 x 82.6 x 5.1 cm (45 1/2 x 32 1/2 x 2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift (Partial and Promised) of Senator and Mrs. H. John Heinz III, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

Accession Number

1991.33.1

Artists / Makers

Thomas Eakins (artist) American, 1844 - 1916

Image Use

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Inscription

lower right: EAKINS

Provenance

Susan Macdowell Eakins [Mrs. Thomas Eakins, 1851-1938], Philadelphia; Millicent Rogers [1902-1953], New York; her son, Count Peter A. Salm, New York;[1] sold 29 April 1983 through (Lothar Dohna, New York) to Mr. and Mrs. H. John Heinz III, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; gift (partial and promised) 1991 to NGA.

[1] Mrs. Rogers died in 1953. In her will there is no mention of the painting among the effects bequeathed by her to her son, Peter Salm.

Associated Names

Dohna, Lothar
Eakins, Susan Hannah Macdowell
Heinz III, H. John, The Honorable and Mrs.
Rogers, Huttleston, Mrs.
Salm, Peter A., Count

Exhibition History

1905: Tenth Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1905, no. 67.

1907: Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings, American Art Society of Philadlephia, The Haseltine Art Galleries, Philadelphia, 1907, no. 1.

1912: One hundredth and seventh Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1912, no. 201.

1939: Exhibition of Paintings by Thomas Eakins, Kleemann Galleries, New York, 1939, no. 11.

1944: A Loan Exhibition of the Works of Thomas Eakins, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1944, no. 76.

1991: Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991, 274-275, color repro.

1993: Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and the Heart of American Life, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1993-1994, no. 45, repro.

Technical Summary

The support is a medium-weight, plain-weave fabric that has been lined. A note in the NGA curatorial files states that before 1930 the initials T.E. were visible on the back of the canvas, which suggests that the present lining was added at about that date. The ground is white. The paint was applied with a uniformly fluid texture; because much of it was applied wet-into-wet, there is no complicated layer structure. Three cracks are visible, the longest in the top left corner. A horizontal line of old damage is apparent in the bottom left corner as is scattered inpainting. Small cracks and spots of abrasion occur throughout the more thinly applied areas, in addition to scattered small losses. A small fill above the sitter's right shoulder has been inpainted with mismatched paint, and inpainting is also visible in the hair just above that shoulder. A thinly painted area to the left of the sitter's forehead has been strengthened with a reddish brown glaze, and damage in the third button from the top on the left side of the sitter's jacket has been inpainted. The varnish has become moderately discolored.

Bibliography

1907: American Art Society. Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings. Exh. cat. Haseltine Art Galleries, Philadelphia, 1907: repro. 1.

1930: Goodrich, Lloyd. "Thomas Eakins, Realist." Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin 25 (March 1930): 30, no. 273.

1944: A Loan Exhibition of the Works of Thomas Eakins 1844-1944. Exh. cat. M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1944: repro. 76.

1946: McHenry, Margaret. Thomas Eakins, Who Painted. Privately printed for the author, Oreland, Pennsylvania, 1946: 117-119.

1974: Hendricks, Gordon. The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins. New York, 1974: 255-256, repro. 256.

1982: Goodrich, Lloyd. Thomas Eakins. 2 vols. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1982: 2:208-211, repro. 209.

1993: Wilmerding, John, et al. Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and the Heart of American Life. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, London, 1993: 166-167, repro. 167.

1996: Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 182-185, color repro.