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October in Philadelphia is a beautiful time of year. Thomas Eakins’ painting, The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull), perfectly captures a perfect Philadelphia October day. Yet this painting is not just a pretty picture; it is packed with significant imagery and it made an impact on the art world and on the world of sports.
1. Thomas Eakins believed that the painter’s job was to specify what time it was, what month it was, and where the weather was heading, as well as what kind of people were there, what they were doing, and why they were doing it. In The Champion Single Sculls, it is around 5 p.m. on October 5, 1870, and the star of the painting is Max Schmitt, a childhood friend of the artist, resting after his victory in a rowing tournament on the Schuylkill River.
2. This painting, the first of 24 rowing paintings that Eakins completed over the course of 4 years, was the first time rowing was the focus of serious art. However, the stuffy Philadelphia critics didn’t take well to Eakins’ subject matter, even though rowing was, at the time, one of the most popular sports. A critic remarked that his subject matter was “a shock to the artistic conventionalities of the city.”
3. Eakins captured many Philadelphia features in the painting, including the Schuylkill River, which ran near his home; the Girard Avenue Bridge and the Connecting Railroad Bridge; and mansions (Egglesfield and Sweetbriar) from two different eras.
4. The rower directly behind Schmitt is Eakins himself. His name and the year are printed on the back of his boat. Other background features include a red canoe occupied by two rowers accompanied by a coxswain in traditional Quaker garb; a locomotive about to cross one bridge; and a steamboat downriver.
5. A poem titled “The Mystery of Max Schmitt,” written by Phillip Dacey in 2000, is based on the painting and is spoken from Schmitt’s point of view. It contemplates the changes the popular sport was about to undergo.
‘Feel Art Again’ appears Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Comments (10)
Comment
wonderful, andrea! i used to go to the MET when i lived in nyc and sit on the floor in front of this treasure for hours on end.
also cool that you wrote about eakins without reverting to the usual loin cloth incident rat-a-tat. brava!
posted by David on 10-18-2007 at 10:55 am
Wow, nice post about a fine work. I’m not very familiar with Eakins, but apparently I need to be. I didn’t think there were too many American realists, especially in that era.
posted by Sid Morrison on 10-18-2007 at 11:45 am
I love Thomas Eakins’ work. A personal favorite of mine is entitled “The Gross Clinic”. A very powerful image of surgery as performed in the late 19th century.
posted by Jerry on 10-18-2007 at 12:08 pm
Great post. When in Philadelphia one can visit Eakins Oval which is located right in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His painting of the boxing match is pretty spectacular, and The Gross Clinic was something of a political football when it was sold recently.
posted by fixedgear on 10-18-2007 at 1:20 pm
Umm… What loin cloth incident? I am intrigued…
posted by GTT on 10-18-2007 at 5:43 pm
fixedgear: I actually attend school in Philly, so I’ll definitely try to get down to the art museum to check out Eakins Oval!
posted by Andréa on 10-18-2007 at 5:48 pm
I’m so glad you featured Eakins! He was one of the reasons I started focusing on American art in college. He was extremely contraversial at the time for his subject matter and because he had his students pose nude — including the women. I think he got kicked out for that.
Not to mention his paintings are beautiful.
posted by Lauren on 10-18-2007 at 6:22 pm
Why? Why? Nude art is not porn. It is divine. Nude art is around world. Even nudist are over the word. I always do the nude art works on site called nudistconnect.com, where there are many nudist who are interested in nude art.
posted by dana on 10-18-2007 at 8:28 pm
GTT: Evidently, during an anatomy lecture in 1886, Eakins removed the loincloth from a male model while women were present. The school received complaints and asked Eakins to resign. To read more about the incident (or any other aspect of Eakins’ life), head to the PBS site to check out their great biography of Eakins.
posted by Andréa on 10-22-2007 at 1:50 am
I love this painting! It so evokes a beautiful October day, of which we’ve had many this year where I live. The background info is really intriguing, too. I look forward to many more posts like this!
posted by Therese on 10-24-2007 at 10:47 am