Homage to Thomas Eakins
Artist
Raphael Soyer
(American (b. Russia), 1899 - 1987)
CultureAmerican
Date1962
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions48 x 39 1/4 in. (121.9 x 99.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 61 x 51 in. (154.9 x 129.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 61 x 51 in. (154.9 x 129.5 cm)
InscribedSigned.
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.705
Not on view
DescriptionOil on canvas painting.Label TextRaphael Soyer American (1899-1987) Homage to Thomas Eakins, ca. 1962 Oil on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.705 Raphael Soyer, who reached artistic maturity in the late 1920s, was known for gritty realist paintings set in lower Manhattan and peopled by the full range of the city's social and ethnic types. By the early 1940s, Soyer had turned from street scenes to portraits of his friends and colleagues; the figures in Homage to Thomas Eakins, painted around 1962, are largely based on these studies. Soyer was baffled and dismayed by the increasing dominance of Abstract Expressionism and the consequent loss of prestige suffered by more traditional artists. In a futile effort to preserve their status with critics and patrons, Soyer and his fellow realists formed a kind of defensive union, publishing open letters and criticism in several art journals as well as their own publication, titled Reality-A Journal of Artist's Opinions. This is the first of two versions of Homage to Thomas Eakins, a conservative manifesto and the painting Soyer's allies hailed as his masterpiece. (The final version, completed in 1964, is in the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.) The painting celebrates Thomas Eakins, a 19th-century Philadelphia realist whose work profoundly influenced subsequent generations. Soyer placed himself, standing, in the center of the painting with Reginald Marsh on his right and Edward Hopper on his left. Behind them is Eakins's greatest work, The Gross Clinic of 1876. Exhibition History"Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976.
Raphael Soyer
