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The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Before beginning a large-scale painting such as The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake, Eakins began a series of specialized studies. He outlined the space of the composition with perspective drawings, such as this sketch in graphite. Eakins also used figure studies when rendering a work, as well as landscape and architectural drawings and his own photographs (examples of which are elsewhere in the exhibition). The practice of using perspective drawings to work out the space of a painting dates back to the Renaissance, revealing Eakins’s academic training.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineThe Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake, 1873. Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916). Graphite and brush and brown wash; sheet: 35.5 x 43.1 cm (14 x 16 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, 1942.1066
