Thomas Eakins is considered to be one of America’s greatest realist painters. His enduring obsession with scientific realism was rooted in his anatomical studies at Jefferson Medical College. Eakins firmly believed that his art should reflect his natural surroundings, chiefly that of domestic Philadelphia. His paintings are, therefore, clear influences on America’s supreme painter of domestic American scenes, Edward Hopper.

Famed for his depictions of the human form in motion and, later, for his portraits of well-known figures, Eakins painted this piece in 1873, a portrait of renowned rower John Biglin. Its palette is indebted to that of such masters as Velazquez and Rembrandt, but its originality, its light and realism, is most definitely the mark of Thomas Eakins, an often overlooked American master. Fitting, then, that Eakins painted one of the most celebrated portraits of another American master, his good friend, Walt Whitman, a piece which should definitely not be overlooked.