American Realist Painter, 1844-1916. Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (July 25, 1844 ?C June 25, 1916) was a realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important artists in American art history. For the length of his professional career, from the early 1870s until his health began to fail some forty years later, Eakins worked exactingly from life, choosing as his subject the people of his hometown of Philadelphia. He painted several hundred portraits, usually of friends, family members, or prominent people in the arts, sciences, medicine, and clergy. Taken en masse, the portraits offer an overview of the intellectual life of Philadelphia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; individually, they are incisive depictions of thinking persons. As well, Eakins produced a number of large paintings which brought the portrait out of the drawing room and into the offices, streets, parks, rivers, arenas, and surgical amphitheaters of his city. These active outdoor venues allowed him to paint the subject which most inspired him: the nude or lightly clad figure in motion. In the process he could model the forms of the body in full sunlight, and create images of deep space utilizing his studies in perspective. No less important in Eakins' life was his work as a teacher. As an instructor he was a highly influential presence in American art. The difficulties which beset him as an artist seeking to paint the portrait and figure realistically were paralleled and even amplified in his career as an educator, where behavioral and sexual scandals truncated his success and damaged his reputation. Eakins also took a keen interest in the new technologies of motion photography, a field in which he is now seen as an innovator. Eakins was a controversial figure whose work received little by way of official recognition during his lifetime. Since his death, he has been celebrated by American art historians as "the strongest, most profound realist in nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century American art".  Related Paintings of Thomas Eakins :. | Sailboats Racing on the Delaware | Study of a Girl Head | Pushing for Rail | William and his Model | The Artist's Wife and his Setter Dog |
Related Artists:
Valentin Serov
Russian Impressionist Painter, 1865-1911
Barend Avercamp
(1612-1679) was a Dutch painter. Avercamp was born in Kampen and was taught by his uncle Hendrick Avercamp, who was also a painter. Barent primarily painted scenes depicting Netherlands in winter. He was a member of the Guild of Saint Luke, and traveled around the Netherlands including Zwolle and Zutphen for his settings and inspiration.
ulrika eleonora
Ulrika Eleonora d.y., född 23 januari 1688, död 24 november 1741, var regerande drottning av Sverige 1719-1720, dotter till Karl XI och Ulrika Eleonora av Danmark, syster till Karl XII samt kusin till August den starke, Fredrik IV av Danmark och Fredrik IV av Holstein-Gottorp. Hon gifte sig 24 mars 1715 med Fredrik av Hessen, den blivande Fredrik I, men förblev barnlös. Ulrika Eleonora föddes den 23 januari 1688 på Stockholms slott som dotter till kung Karl XI och Ulrika Eleonora d.ä. Under barndomen förbisågs hon av alla för sin äldre, livligare och mera begåvade syster Hedvig Sofia. Så snart hon blivit giftasvuxen fick hon många friare, bland andra blivande Georg II av Storbritannien och arvprins Fredrik av Hessen-Kassel. Redan 1710 begärde denne hennes hand, men deras trolovning tillkännagavs inte förrän den 23 januari 1714. Bilägret firades den 24 mars 1715. Under Karl XII:s vistelse utomlands var hon, efter Hedvig Sofias död (1708), den enda myndiga medlemmen av kungahuset inom riket om man borträknar hennes åldriga farmor (Hedvig Eleonora). I slutet av 1712 eller början av 1713 hade Karl XII tankar om att göra sin syster Ulrika Eleonora till regent, men fullföljde inte denna plan. Det kungliga rådet däremot övertalade henne att bevista dess sammanträden för att i henne erhålla ett stöd. Första gången hon infann sig i rådet, 2 november 1713, beslöts också om sammankallande av en riksdag. Det s.k. rörelsepartiet vid denna riksdag ville att prinsessan i kungens frånvaro skulle göras till riksföreståndarinna "såsom närmaste arvinge till kronan och regementet". Detta förslag motarbetades av Arvid Horn och rådet, som fruktade att svårigheterna för en ändring av regeringssättet därigenom skulle ökas. Prinsessan visade emellertid ständerna stort intresse för landets angelägenheter. I sina brev till kungen uppmanade hon honom att återvända hem och varnade honom för möjliga följder av hans frånvaro. Med hans samtycke undertecknade hon under den följande tiden alla rådets skrivelser, utom dem som var ställda till honom, för i sin egenskap av vice regent var hon ett med kungen enligt dennes uppfattning. Mera sällan deltog hon i rådets förhandlingar.