5 most influential paintings by American Realist Thomas Eakins

Thomas Eakins, a realist painter who took the art world by storm, is famous for painting humans and situations with such realistic quality that they feel not like art, but rather images and photographs captured through cameras. His paintings had subtle colours, minimal characters, and very often extremely graphic, which in turn caught people’s eyes. He drew people in the most raw, unfiltered, and unromanticised forms, and this is exactly what appealed to people after seeing a generations worth of art that was taken out of the ordinary. Here we mention the 5 most influential paintings by him.

One of Eakins’ most famous paintings, and also described the most as ‘harrowing to watch’ is ‘The Gross Clinic’. The painting shows Dr. Samuel Gross, a surgeon, performing surgery before a group of students. He can be seen standing between a bunch of students who are carefully observing the patient in front of them, and he holds a scalpel to make an incision on the patient. And right in the middle of the room is a woman, likely the patient’s mother, who looks horrified and turns her head away, not being able to see what is happening in front of her.

A deep and subtle portrait, ‘The Thinker’ features a man standing with his hands in the pocket, and his gaze is downwards as if he is in intense contemplation about something. In this painting too the colours are simple and subtle, the yellow background makes the man pop out in the art with his black clothes.
In the body language of the man one can see that he is deep in thought, possibly forgetting that someone is looking at him, and with his hands in the pocket he thinks about any and everything on Earth.

Another very famous painting by Thomas Eakins is ‘The Biglin Brothers Racing’. This too looks very similar to a photograph, captured by someone on camera, and it amazes people to know that it is actually a painting. It shows two brothers, John and Barney Biglin, rowing their boat in perfect unison. When focused well, one can also spot that the brother sitting in front is looking straight ahead, while the other one is looking straight at the viewer.

A beautiful painting by Eakins, ‘The Artist’s Wife and His Setter Dog’ shows none other than Eakins wife, Susan, and their dog. The painting shows her seated on a chair, holding a book with a calm expression on her face, and love in her eyes, and the family dog, a setter, laying down on the ground, close to Susan. As compared to other paintings by Eakins, this one has a certain charm to it owing to the main character, and is also more colourful than the rest.

‘The Chess Players’ is another simple, minimal painting that shows his grasp on the realistic genre. It features 3 men, with two of them engaged deeply into the game, while another stands near the table watching their moves and tricks. The two players have their backs and faces leaned into the board game, and they look extremely absorbed in the game. Infact, even the chess board they use looks bright and polished, showing how well they took care of the board.

(All paintings from: ThomasEakinsOrg/Website)