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Saturday, December 15, 2012

Thomas Eakins (1844 - 1916): The male figure


We two boys together clinging,
One the other never leaving,
Up and down the roads going,
North and South excursions making,
Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,
Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving.
No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving, threatening,
Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking, on the turf
or the sea-beach dancing,
Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, feebleness chasing,
Fulfilling our foray.

Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
We two boys together clinging






Eakins, of course, painted and photographed more than the male figure, but he captures its beauty, particularly in his boxer paintings. This applies equally to the final painting of his friend and student John Laurie Wallace, who in this pose isn't the same idealized figure as those in the wrestling or boxing paintings.

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