Editing Thomas Eakins (section)

==Death and legacy==
Eakins died on June 25, 1916, at the age of 71 and is buried at [[The Woodlands (Philadelphia)|The Woodlands]], which is located near the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in [[West Philadelphia]].<ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 13520). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref>

Late in life Eakins did experience some recognition. In 1902, he was made a [[National Academy of Design|National Academician]]. In 1914, the sale of a portrait study of [[D. Hayes Agnew]] for ''The Agnew Clinic'' to Dr. [[Albert C. Barnes]] precipitated much publicity when rumors circulated that the selling price was fifty thousand dollars. In fact, Barnes bought the painting for four thousand dollars.<ref>Homer, p. 249.</ref>

In the year after his death, Eakins was honored with a memorial retrospective at the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], and in 1917–18 the Pennsylvania Academy followed suit. Susan Macdowell Eakins did much to preserve his reputation, including giving the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]] more than fifty of her husband's oil paintings.<ref>Goodrich, Vol. II, p. 282.</ref> After her death in 1938, other works were sold off, and eventually another large collection of art and personal material was purchased by [[Joseph Hirshhorn]], and now is part of the [[Hirshhorn Museum]]'s collection.<ref>Goodrich, Vol. II, p. 284.</ref> Since then, Eakins' home in [[North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|North Philadelphia]] was put on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] list in 1966, and [[Eakins Oval]], across from the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the [[Benjamin Franklin Parkway]], was named for the artist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/PA/Philadelphia/state3.html|title=Pennsylvania – Philadelphia County|publisher=National Register of Historic Places.com|access-date=April 20, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.homeandabroad.com/viewSiteDetails.ha?mainInfoId=50074|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928063736/http://www.homeandabroad.com/viewSiteDetails.ha?mainInfoId=50074|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 28, 2007|title=Eakins Oval|publisher=Home&Abroad|access-date = April 20, 2007}}</ref> In 1967 ''The Biglin Brothers Racing'' (1872) was reproduced on a United States postage stamp. His work was also part of the [[Art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics#Painting|painting event]] in the [[Art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics|art competition]] at the [[1932 Summer Olympics]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/921783|title=Thomas Eakins|work=Olympedia|access-date=August 4, 2020}}</ref>

Eakins' attitude toward [[Realism (visual art)|realism]] in painting, and his desire to explore the heart of American life proved influential. He taught hundreds of students, among them his future wife Susan Macdowell, African-American painter [[Henry Ossawa Tanner]], and [[Thomas Pollock Anshutz|Thomas Anshutz]], who taught, in turn, [[Robert Henri]], [[George Luks]], [[John Sloan]], and [[Everett Shinn]], future members of the [[Ashcan School]], and other [[American realism|realists]] and artistic heirs to Eakins' philosophy.<ref>Goodrich, Vol. II, p. 309.</ref> Though his is not a household name, and though during his lifetime Eakins struggled to make a living from his work, today he is regarded as one of the most important American artists of any period.

Since the 1990s, Eakins has emerged as a major figure in sexuality studies in art history, for both the [[homoeroticism]] of his male nudes and for the complexity of his attitudes toward women. Controversy shaped much of his career as a teacher and as an artist. He insisted on teaching men and women "the same", used nude male models in female classes and vice versa, and was accused of abusing female students.<ref>Kirkpatrick, Sidney. ''The Revenge of Thomas Eakins'' p. 311, Yale University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-300-10855-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-300-10855-2}}</ref>

Recent scholarship suggests that these scandals were grounded in more than the "puritanical prudery" of his contemporaries—as had once been assumed—and that Eakins' progressive academic principles may have protected unconscious and dubious agendas.<ref>Sewell et al. 2001, pp. 104</ref> These controversies may have been caused by a combination of factors such as the bohemianism of Eakins and his circle (in which students, for example, sometimes modeled in the nude for each other), the intensity and authority of his teaching style, and Eakins' inclination toward unorthodox or provocative behavior.<ref>Sewell et al. 2001, pp. 104–05</ref><ref>Homer, pp. 173–82</ref>

<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:eakins cook.jpg|''[[Portrait of Maud Cook]]'' (1895), Yale University Art Gallery
File:Thomas eakins carrying a woman.jpeg|''Thomas Eakins Carrying a Woman'', 1885. Photograph, circle of Eakins
</gallery>

===Disposition of estate===
Eakins was unable to sell many of his works during his lifetime, so when he died in 1916, a large body of artwork passed to his widow, [[Susan Macdowell Eakins]]. She carefully preserved it, donating some of the strongest pieces to various museums. When she in turn died in 1938, much of the remaining artistic estate was destroyed or damaged by executors, and the remainders were belatedly salvaged by a former Eakins student. For more details, see the article "[[List of works by Thomas Eakins]]".{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

On November 11, 2006, the board of trustees at [[Thomas Jefferson University]] agreed to sell ''The Gross Clinic'' to the [[National Gallery of Art]] in Washington DC, and the [[Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art]] in [[Bentonville, Arkansas]], for a record $68&nbsp;million, the highest price for an Eakins painting as well as a record price for an individual American-made portrait.<ref>Shattuck, Kathryn (November 19, 2006). [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/arts/design/19shat.html "Got Medicare? A $68 Million Operation"]. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved on March 31, 2007.</ref> On December 21, 2006, a group of donors agreed to match the price to keep the painting in Philadelphia. It is displayed alternately at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.{{sfn|Foster|Tucker|2012|p=170}}