Thomas Eakins

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1844-1916

One of the masters of American Realism, he trained at the Pennsylvania Academy in his home town, where he was to become a professor and eventually president in 1882-a post taken over by William Chase in 1897. He completed his apprenticeship in Paris (1866-1869) where he studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme and Léon Bonna, also travelling to Spain, Germany and Italy. He visited Florence, Rome and Venice in 1868.