Riter Fitzgerald

Maker Thomas Eakins (American, 1844 - 1916)

Collections

American Paintings Selections

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1895

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 22 × 18 in. (55.9 × 45.7 cm.) frame: 28 3/4 × 24 1/2 × 3 in. (73 × 62.2 × 7.6 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation

Status

Not on view

Label TextThomas Eakins often portrayed professional men-including doctors, clergymen, professors, and scientists-deep in thought, a pose befitting people who worked with their minds as much as their hands. Journalist Riter Fitzgerald, a Philadelphia art critic and friend of Eakins, is shown sitting in an easy chair with a book in his lap, his head raised as if contemplating something he has just read.

This oil sketch is a study for a large portrait of Riter Fitzgerald that Eakins painted in 1895 (now at the Art Institute of Chicago). He gave this version to Fitzgerald's sister, a gesture that reflected the warm friendship he had with the critic's family. Fitzgerald, for his part, was a staunch advocate of Eakins's work. Of this painting, Fitzgerald quipped, "it is undoubtedly one of the finest portraits Eakins ever painted."

Object number83.8.14