Portrait of Maud Cook
Portrait of Maud Cook | |
---|---|
G-279. | |
Year | 1895 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 24 x 20 in (61 x 50.8 cm) |
Location | Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven |
Portrait of Maud Cook is an 1895 oil-on-canvas painting by the American artist Thomas Eakins, Goodrich catalogue #279. It is in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.
Given the artist's lack of interest in fashion or conventional beauty, the portrait has been noted as "a rare example of Eakins's studying the physical beauty of a young woman," and "one of Eakins's loveliest paintings."[1][2]
Maud was the sister of Weda Cook, who posed for Eakins' The Concert Singer in 1892. She is seen in a pink dress, the fabric flowing from her shoulders and pinned between her breasts. Her head is tilted to the left, in the direction of the light source. The light creates deep shadows that define the structure of her face, yet is subtle enough to suggest a youthful skin tone.[2]
In a letter written to Lloyd Goodrich in 1930, Cook recalled: "As I was just a young girl my hair is down low in the neck and tied with a ribbon....Mr. Eakins never gave (the painting) a name but said to himself it was like a 'big rose bud'."[2][3] Several art historians have remarked on the implications of Eakins' description, especially the Victorian association of the rose with virginity, and the bud with sexual potential.[2][4] Cook was in her twenties when she sat for the portrait and did not marry until eleven years later.[4]
The painting has been described as an example of Eakins' typical stark and unflattering vision.[5] Although described as "resembling a classical sculpture more than a pretty, contemporary woman",[1] Cook's representation is viewed as sensual, and representing an intensely private moment, underscored by the attention paid to her features and the disarray of her hairline. The suggestion of repressed sexuality has been seen as both intriguing and disturbing.[4]
Before giving the painting to Cook, Eakins inscribed "To his friend/Maude Cook/Thomas Eakins/1895" on the back and carved its frame.[6] Eventually the painting was acquired by Stephen Carlton Clark, who bequeathed it to Yale University Art Gallery, where it has been held since 1961.[6]
See also
Notes
References
- Goodrich, Lloyd: Thomas Eakins, Vol. II. Harvard University Press, 1982. ISBN 0-674-88490-6
- Homer, William Innes. Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art. Abbeville, 1992. ISBN 1-55859-281-4
- Sewell, Darrel. Thomas Eakins: Artist of Philadelphia. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982. ISBN 0-87633-047-2
- Sewell, Darrel; et al. Thomas Eakins. Yale University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-87633-143-6
- Wilmerding, John, et al. Thomas Eakins. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993. ISBN 1-56098-313-2
- v
- t
- e
- List of works
- Max Schmitt in a Single Scull (1871)
- Portrait of Professor Benjamin H. Rand (1874)
- The Gross Clinic (1875)
- The Chess Players
- William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River (1876)
- The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand (1879–1880)
- The Writing Master (1882)
- Arcadia (1883)
- The Swimming Hole (1885)
- The Artist's Wife and His Setter Dog (c. 1884–1889)
- The Agnew Clinic (1889)
- Miss Amelia Van Buren (1891)
- The Concert Singer (1892)
- Portrait of Maud Cook (1895)
- The Pianist (1896)
- Taking the Count (1898)
- Salutat (1898)
- Between Rounds (1899)
- Wrestlers (1899)
- Portrait of Mary Adeline Williams (1899, 1900)
- The Thinker: Portrait of Louis N. Kenton (1900)
- Portrait of Leslie W. Miller (1901)
- Self-portrait (1902)
- Archbishop William Henry Elder (1903)
- William Rush and His Model (1908)
- Susan Macdowell Eakins (wife)
- Thomas Eakins House
- Conservation-restoration of The Gross Clinic
- Eakins Oval