Many American artists traveled to Paris, France, to further their careers. Several of the American portraitists, realists, impressionists, and abstract artists that studied, lived, and worked in Paris, France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries wrote letters home to family and friends describing their lives there. One of these artists was Thomas Eakins, and here you will find letters dating from his art studies in Paris in the 1860s.
Many American artists traveled to Paris, France, to further their careers. Several of the American portraitists, realists, impressionists, and abstract artists that studied, lived, and worked in Paris, France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries wrote letters home to family and friends describing their lives there. One of these artists was Thomas Eakins, and here you will find letters dating from his art studies in Paris in the 1860s.
Realist painter and art instructor Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) moved to Paris in 1866, where he studied painting with Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for three years, and briefly with sculptor Augustin-Alexandre Dumont and painter Léon Bonnat. He toured Spain for six months in 1870 and then returned to to the US to become a portrait artist. Eakins began teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and became its director of instruction in 1882.
Explore the collection of fully digitized Thomas Eakins letters on the Archives of American Art website!