Swimming

While serving as the head of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Eakins made the study of the nude integral to his teaching. He believed that classical Greek sculptors had based their art on firsthand observation of the living figure, and he sought to emulate this practice in the classroom, going so far as to encourage students to pose nude for one another as part of their studies. Swimming serves as a visual manifesto of this practice, exemplifying his vision of a modern-day community of artists devoted to life study. The picture proved enormously controversial, drawing charges of indecency because the figures were identifiable as portraits of the artist and several of his male students (Eakins is at right swimming toward his dog, Harry). Although some students defended Eakins’s methods, others shared unsettling accounts of his aggressive promotion of nude study, and the artist was forced to resign from the academy the year after this painting was made. 4.-official white label from Fort Worth Art Museum with red logo, typewritten: Thomas Eakins, American (1844-1916) THE SWIMMING HOLE, 1883 27 x 36 inches collection of The Fort Worth Art Museum 5.-white with green printing, within green lined square: MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH l.l., label with domino shape: THE NEW YORK CULTURAL CENTER 2 COLUMBUS CIRCLE, NEW YORK 10019 in association with Fairleigh Dickinson Artist Thomas Eakins Title Swimming hole, 1883 Lender The Fort Worth Art Museum Exhibition Three Centuries of the American Nude. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Purchased by the Friends of Art, Fort Worth Art Association, 1925; acquired by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 1990, from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth through grants and donations from the Amon G. Carter Foundation, the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, the Anne Burnett and Charles Tandy Foundation, Capital Cities/ABC Foundation, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The R. D. and Joan Dale Hubbard Foundation and the people of Fort Worth Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this exhibition reunites the paintings, sculptures, and works on paper installed in the president’s suite at the Hotel Texas in 1963 before his tragic death. During the renovation, this exhibition features highlights from the permanent collection, including paintings, photographs, and sculptures, by some of America’s most renowned artists.