Babcock Galleries, New York, ;. New York: M. Knoedler, , [8], 13 as Nude, Female [Study]. Thomas Eakins Centennial Exhibition, β , exh.
Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute, , unpaginated. Margaret C. Conrads, ed. Female Nude Study. Alternate Title: Nude The Model. Artist: Thomas Eakins American, - Date: ca.
Medium: Oil on canvas. Signed: Signed lower right: T. Current Location: G, In Collection s. Description A nude woman is posed before a mossy brown background which lightens towards the bottom of the canvas. She is seen from the rear and turned so that her head is seen in profile and faces proper right. She wears her hair pulled up from her neck and her face is in shadow. Gallery Label A thorough understanding of anatomy was at the core of Thomas Eakins' philosophy and practice as an artist and as a professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Using a warm-brown and tan palette in Female Nude, Eakins carefully described his model's form, conveying a convincing sense of weight and skeletal structure. His model was likely his wife and former student Susan Macdowell Eakins. This study's purpose remains a mystery.
Incised lines in this study suggest plans to translate it into a larger composition, but no related oil paintings by Eakins are known. It does closely resemble a watercolor. Intriguingly, the study relates most of all to a composition by one of Eakins' students. Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete.
