The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull), Thomas Eakins
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use Fullscreen link.
One of Eakins’ fascinating exercises in river surface perspective on the Schuylkill River here in Philadelphia. This area of the river is still commonly used for sculling, though the bridges and the banks of the river have been altered since Eakins’ time.
Eakins painted a series of compositions with similar themes. He himself was a sculling enthusiast, and has here depicted himself rowing in the scull beyond Schmitt’s.
Link: The Champion Single Sculls, Met Museum
A national treasure.
Eakins’s painting, I mean.
(Though you’re special, too, Charley!)
(Grin). Thanks, Daniel.
This is one of those paintings that could really never be improved upon.
Most fascinating is what Eakins left out, the reflection of the bridge on the water which would have interfered with the wakes, the figures in the boats and the cool stillness of the sport.
I do wonder if there is some personal reason he chose to blur his own face in the refection?
What’s in a name?
Does Schuylkill not have the old Dutch geographic meaning of Hidden Creek?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_(body_of_water)
~ I am seeking for the bridge which leans from the visible to the invisible through reality.
Max Beckmann
Yes, Schuylkill means exactly that (though it’s not very hidden where it meets the Delaware River in Philadelphia). There are a number of creeks in nearby Delaware that are named “kills”, even a “Murderkill Creek”.