Study for "The Dancing Lesson": The Boyprobably 1877
This oil sketch studies the young boy who dances at the centre of Thomas Eakins’s watercolour The Dancing Lesson of 1878, now in the Metropolitan Museum. More about this work
About this work
This oil sketch studies the young boy who dances at the centre of Thomas Eakins’s watercolour The Dancing Lesson of 1878, now in the Metropolitan Museum. Eakins prepared the composition with separate studies of each figure from life, working out their poses, proportions and lighting before transferring them to the final sheet. Such studies reveal the careful, almost scientific method behind his realism, as well as his sympathetic attention to his sitters.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Thomas Eakins
American, 1844–1916 · Born and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Eakins studied in Paris under Jean-Léon Gérôme and was impressed in Spain by Velázquez and Ribera, then returned to Philadelphia, where he spent his life. He painted rowers, boxers and his city’s doctors and scholars with a frank realism grounded in anatomy, perspective and, later, photography. A demanding teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he was forced to resign in 1886 over his use of nude models. Max Schmitt in a Single Scull was the first of his rowing pictures.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The National Gallery of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1985.64.15
- Credit
- Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Type
- Painting
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
