Knitting

Thomas Eakins Knitting, modeled in 1882-83 and cast around 1886, is a painted plaster sculpture that exemplifies the American Realist painters approach to the human figure, in which the observation of specific individuals in specific activities is combined with the anatomical precision and structural clarity that distinguish his most accomplished work. Eakins, who was the most important Realist painter in America in the late 19th century and a teacher whose influence on American art extended through his students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, produced sculptures as studies for his paintings and as independent works that demonstrate his mastery of three-dimensional form. The figure of the woman knitting, depicted with the anatomical precision and structural clarity that distinguish Eakins best work, is rendered with the specific attention to gesture and posture that comes from direct observation of a real person engaged in a real activity rather than the generalized idealization of academic sculpture. The painted plaster medium, which Eakins frequently used for his sculptural studies, provides a surface that can be modeled and reworked with the same directness as a painting, allowing the artist to make changes and corrections as he refines the form. The years 1882-83 for the modeling and the date of around 1886 for the casting place this sculpture in the period when Eakins was producing some of his most accomplished paintings, including The Swimming Hole and Max Schmitt in a Single Scull, and the sculptural approach to the figure that Knitting demonstrates is closely connected to the painting practice that produced these masterworks.

Eakins sculptures are significant documents for understanding his approach to the figure and the close connection between his painting and sculptural practice, and Knitting demonstrates the anatomical precision and observational directness that make his work significant. His sculptures influenced the development of American Realist sculpture and the broader tradition of sculptural studies for painting.

A painted plaster sculpture by Eakins modeled 1882-83 and cast c.1886 of a woman knitting, combining anatomical precision with direct observation of a specific person engaged in a real activity in the American Realist tradition of structural clarity and observational fidelity.