Thomas Eakins painted two worlds in nineteenth-century America: one sure of its values-statesmen, scientists, and philosophers-and one that offered an uncertain vision of the changing times. From the shadow of his mother's depression to his fraught identity as a married man with homosexual inclinations, to his failure to sell his work in his day, Eakins was a man marked equally by passion and melancholy.In this enlightening examination of Eakins's defining artistic moments and key relationships-with wife Susan MacDowell, with subject and friend Walt Whitman, and with several leading scientists of his time-William S. McFeely sheds light on the motivations and desires of a founder of American realism.

About the Author
William S. McFeely is Abraham Baldwin Professor of the Humanities, Emeritus, at the University of Georgia. He is the author of Yankee Stepfather: General O. O. Howard and the Freedmen; Grant: A Biography, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Parkman Prize; Frederick Douglass, which received the Lincoln Prize; Sapelo's People: A Long Walk into Freedom; and Proximity to Death.

Reviews
"Provocative... McFeely sensitively chronicles the maturation of this enigmatic Philadelphian." The New York Times Book Review"



Book Information
ISBN 9780393330687
Author William S. McFeely
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 395g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 157mm * 18mm