Portrait of Professor W. D. Marks

Thomas Eakins

1886

Recently conserved with funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Thomas Eakins, recognized as the leading proponent of Realism in nineteenth-century American painting, often painted portraits of friends who were accomplished in the fields of science, medicine, and academia. William Dennis Marks, a St. Louis native and prominent professor of dynamical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, is depicted here seated at his desk, seemingly lost in thought, surrounded by the books and tools of his profession. While the background is loosely painted, sharper focus is given to the engineer’s figure and the machine on his desk, a chronograph invented by Marks for use in experiments with motion photography. To paint it with precision Eakins transferred the outline of the machine from a photograph onto the canvas. The light shining on Marks’s head, his hands, and the chronograph visually unites these elements, suggesting a link between the engineer’s thoughts and his experiments. One of Eakins’s most ambitious portraits, this work demonstrates how the artist’s interest in technology and science was connected to his advancement of realism in painting. [Permanent collection label, 2017]

Artist Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916)
Title Portrait of Professor W. D. Marks
Date 1886
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions unframed | 76 3/8 x 54 1/8 in.
Credit line University purchase, Yeatman Fund, 1936
Object number WU 2944

Technique oil painting
Work type painting
Theme STEM

Real / Radical / Psychological: The Collection on Display
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/09/2016 - 01/15/2017

Collecting Patterns
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/05/2003 - 12/07/2003

Beginnings: The Taste of the Founders
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/21/2000 - 03/19/2000

American Portraiture in the Grand Manner: 1720–1920
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 11/17/1981 - 01/31/1982
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 03/17/1982 - 06/06/1982

The Centennial Exhibition
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/15/1981 - 10/11/1981

Nineteenth and Twentieth Century American Painters
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 06/02/1980 - 07/27/1980

Nineteenth Century American Painting
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 11/16/1979 - 01/06/1980

Portraits and Landscapes

Two Hundred Years of American Painting
LandesMuseum (Bonn, Germany), 06/30/1976 - 07/30/1976
Museum of Modern Art (Belgrade, Yugoslavia), 08/14/1976 - 09/11/1976
Galleria d’Arte Moderna (Rome, Italy), 09/28/1976 - 10/26/1976
National Museum of Poland (Warsaw, Poland), 11/12/1976 - 12/10/1976
Baltimore Museum of Art, 01/16/1977 - 02/06/1977

Moments in Portraiture: Thomas Eakins Retrospective Exhibition
Whitney Museum of American Art, 09/21/1970 - 11/21/1970

Washington University Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture from Daumier to Pollock
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 04/06/1966 - 05/08/1966

Thomas Eakins: A Retrospective Exhibition
National Gallery of Art, 10/08/1961 - 11/12/1961
Art Institute of Chicago, 12/01/1961 - 01/07/1962
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 02/01/1962 - 03/18/1962

Opening Exhibition of Mark C. Steinberg Memorial Hall
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 04/29/1960

World’s Columbian Exposition
Art Palace, Fine Arts Building, 05/01/1893 - 10/30/1893

1936
Macbeth Gallery, New York

Inscription [CR of canvas, in red paint:] EAKINS .86.

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