Are we painters or photographers?

[Mari DeRuntz]

Tim, again, how can you oversimplify Eakins as a painter of photographs? Look into his influence on life classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Better yet, add to your research Thomas Eakins ed. by Darrel Sewell, Yale University Press. Go to page 54 and you will see a color oil sketch for "The Gross Clinic".

Eakins was an academic painter who struggled with the Pennsylvania Academy to allow life classes. I think you need to do more research on this important American painter. Yes, he used photography as a tool. But yes, he came from and continued a strongly academic painting history.