Portrait: A Life of Thomas Eakins
by: McFeely, William S.

Hardcover. New York, W. W. Norton, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 237 pages, b&w illustrations, 16 color plates. A very clean, tight copy. Thomas Eakins, a native of Philadelphia, painted two worlds: one sure of its valuesthe surgeons, inventors, musicians, and athletes of his timeand another that reflected his own struggles with depression and sexual identity. In this evenhanded account of those struggles, William S. McFeely sheds new light on Eakins's genius and on the evocative melancholy of his portraits, particularly of women, which include many of his remarkable wife, Susan McDowell Eakins. Those deeply perceptive paintings may be the greatest expressions of his art.