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Paris as Proving Ground: Part I |
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Thomas Eakins (1844–1916)
Starting Out after Rail, ca. 1874
Oil on canvas mounted on Masonite; 24 1/4 x 19 7/8 in. (61.6 x 50.5 cm)
Goupil's, 1874–75; Salon, 1875
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund
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Eakins developed a highly finished style while studying with Jean-Léon Gérôme and Léon Bonnat in Paris. After returning to Philadelphia, he regularly wrote to Gérôme and solicited his advice. In spring 1874 Eakins sent Starting Out after Rail (and another oil that cannot be securely identified) to Adolphe Goupil, Gérôme's Parisian art dealer, and sought Gérôme's critique. In spring 1875 he sent four more paintings, including Pushing for Rail, to Paris for display in the Salon. When the four pictures arrived too late, Gérôme substituted the two canvases already in Goupil's stock to represent his star American pupil.
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