Miss Amelia Van Buren

Eakins centered his attention on Van Buren's face and hands, creating through subtle means—deft highlights, distant glance, and relaxed yet tensile hands—an image of great psychological complexity. Her weary head leans on her curved hand, while her other hand rests in her lap. She looks absently towards but not into the strong light, which emanates from the left and defines her face. Eakins establishes in this passage Van Buren's character, her quiet strength and determination. And it is in this manner, through a portrait of his friend and fellow artist's contemplative state, that Eakins comments on his own achievements at the end of a long, tumultuous career. Read more...