Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross (The Gross Clinic), 1875
Thomas Eakins, American
Oil on canvas
8 feet x 6 feet 6 inches (243.8 x 198.1 cm)
Short version: Gift of the Alumni Association to Jefferson Medical College in 1878 and purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007 with the generous support of more than 3,500 donors Complete credit line: Gift of the Alumni Association to Jefferson Medical College in 1878 and purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007 through The Joseph E. Temple Fund of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the gift of Mrs. Thomas Eakins and Miss Mary Adeline Williams (by exchange) and with the generous support of The Annenberg Foundation, Athena and Nicholas Karabots, an anonymous donor, Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, Jeanette and Joe Neubauer, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Dorrance H. Hamilton Charitable Trust, Leslie Miller and Richard Worley, Mrs. J. Maxwell Moran, and Penelope P. Wilson, as well as significant contributions from two anonymous donors, Jan and Warren Adelson in memory of Margaret and Raymond Horowitz, American Art Search, Mrs. Gustave G. Amsterdam, Graham Arader, Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, Helen and Jack Bershad, Estate of Frank Paul Bowman, Michael and Veronica Bradley, Robert W. Brano, Mr. and Mrs. William C. Buck, William C. Bullitt, Donald R. Caldwell, Clara Callahan and Peter Goodman, Mr. and Mrs. Tristram C. Colket, Jr., Connelly Foundation, Sarah and Frank Coulson, Maude de Schauensee, Anne d'Harnoncourt, Mrs. Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr., Jaimie and David Field, Mrs. Joanna G. Gabel, David W. Haas, Frederick R. Haas and Daniel K. Meyer, M.D., Joseph and Sherry Hanley, Hannah L. and J. Welles Henderson, Barbara B. and Paul M. Henkels, Holly Beach Public Library Association, Lynne and Harold Honickman, James A. Michener Art Museum, Dr. and Mrs. Henry A. Jordan, in honor of Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Kaiserman Family, Paul K. Kania, Jill and Peter Kraus, Carolyn Payne Langfitt, Larking Hill Foundation, Harriet and Ronald Lassin, Ellen and Jerry Lee, Judy and Peter Leone, Mr. and Mrs. John J. Lombard, Jr., Mrs. Louis C. Madeira IV, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Magid, Agnes M. Mulroney, Dr. and Mrs. J. Brien Murphy and family, Elizabeth Anne O'Donnell, Jeffrey Orleans, Natalie Y. Peris Memorial Fund, Andrew M. Rouse, Susan K. Shapiro, 1675 Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. E. Newbold Smith, Dr. Stanton and SaraKay Smullens, Marilyn L. Steinbright, Deborah W. Troemner, Veritable, LP, The William Penn Foundation, The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and additional gifts from more than 3,500 donors, including trustees and staff of the Academy and the Museum, 2007-1-1
2007-1-1
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Thomas Eakins, American
Oil on canvas
8 feet x 6 feet 6 inches (243.8 x 198.1 cm)
Short version: Gift of the Alumni Association to Jefferson Medical College in 1878 and purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007 with the generous support of more than 3,500 donors Complete credit line: Gift of the Alumni Association to Jefferson Medical College in 1878 and purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007 through The Joseph E. Temple Fund of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the gift of Mrs. Thomas Eakins and Miss Mary Adeline Williams (by exchange) and with the generous support of The Annenberg Foundation, Athena and Nicholas Karabots, an anonymous donor, Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, Jeanette and Joe Neubauer, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Dorrance H. Hamilton Charitable Trust, Leslie Miller and Richard Worley, Mrs. J. Maxwell Moran, and Penelope P. Wilson, as well as significant contributions from two anonymous donors, Jan and Warren Adelson in memory of Margaret and Raymond Horowitz, American Art Search, Mrs. Gustave G. Amsterdam, Graham Arader, Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, Helen and Jack Bershad, Estate of Frank Paul Bowman, Michael and Veronica Bradley, Robert W. Brano, Mr. and Mrs. William C. Buck, William C. Bullitt, Donald R. Caldwell, Clara Callahan and Peter Goodman, Mr. and Mrs. Tristram C. Colket, Jr., Connelly Foundation, Sarah and Frank Coulson, Maude de Schauensee, Anne d'Harnoncourt, Mrs. Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr., Jaimie and David Field, Mrs. Joanna G. Gabel, David W. Haas, Frederick R. Haas and Daniel K. Meyer, M.D., Joseph and Sherry Hanley, Hannah L. and J. Welles Henderson, Barbara B. and Paul M. Henkels, Holly Beach Public Library Association, Lynne and Harold Honickman, James A. Michener Art Museum, Dr. and Mrs. Henry A. Jordan, in honor of Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Kaiserman Family, Paul K. Kania, Jill and Peter Kraus, Carolyn Payne Langfitt, Larking Hill Foundation, Harriet and Ronald Lassin, Ellen and Jerry Lee, Judy and Peter Leone, Mr. and Mrs. John J. Lombard, Jr., Mrs. Louis C. Madeira IV, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Magid, Agnes M. Mulroney, Dr. and Mrs. J. Brien Murphy and family, Elizabeth Anne O'Donnell, Jeffrey Orleans, Natalie Y. Peris Memorial Fund, Andrew M. Rouse, Susan K. Shapiro, 1675 Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. E. Newbold Smith, Dr. Stanton and SaraKay Smullens, Marilyn L. Steinbright, Deborah W. Troemner, Veritable, LP, The William Penn Foundation, The Women's Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and additional gifts from more than 3,500 donors, including trustees and staff of the Academy and the Museum, 2007-1-1
2007-1-1
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Philadelphia Treasures Eakins’s Gross Clinic and Saint-Gaudens’s Angel of Purity
August 2, 2008 - February 2009
The Museum welcomes two masterpieces made for Philadelphia by two of nineteenth-century America’s finest artists, Thomas Eakins and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Close contemporaries and friends, they both trained in Paris and traveled in Europe before returning to the United States about 1870 to begin distinguished careers. Sharing a belief in the expressive power of the human body as a subject for modern painting and sculpture, they developed different styles.
Eakins, committed to the depiction of contemporary life, celebrated the heroes of his own day—as in The Gross Clinic—in a grand and unsparing realism evoking the Dutch and Spanish masters of the seventeenth century. Saint-Gaudens, trained in the same tradition of naturalism and life study, fused the real with the ideal—as in The Angel of Purity—following the poetic spirit of neoclassicism. At the peak of their accomplishment in these two works, both masters demonstrate the power of great public art to stir profound and complex emotions grounded in themes of human life and death.
Installed in public spaces in Philadelphia for more than a century, these two extraordinary works of art will continue to inspire audiences here, thanks to the support of many donors rallied by the Museum’s dedicated director, Anne d’Harnoncourt (1943–2008), who worked tirelessly to secure both treasures for the city.
The Angel of Purity (Maria Mitchell Memorial), 1902
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, American (born Ireland)
Marble
96 x 48 x 12 inches (243.8 x 121.9 x 30.5 cm)
Purchased with the Annenberg Fund for Major Acquisitions and with the gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Wharton Sinkler and Mrs. T. Charleton Henry (by exchange); and with funds contributed by the Margaret Dorrance Strawbridge Foundation of Pennsylvania II, Inc., 2005
2005-2-1
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Augustus Saint-Gaudens, American (born Ireland)
Marble
96 x 48 x 12 inches (243.8 x 121.9 x 30.5 cm)
Purchased with the Annenberg Fund for Major Acquisitions and with the gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Wharton Sinkler and Mrs. T. Charleton Henry (by exchange); and with funds contributed by the Margaret Dorrance Strawbridge Foundation of Pennsylvania II, Inc., 2005
2005-2-1
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Curator
Kathleen Foster • The Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Senior Curator of American Art and Director, Center for American ArtLocation
Gallery 119, first floor
