until it lasts

What is the point of having a tumbler account if you’re going to so radically suppress how consenting adults feel about pornography and our individual views, on posting, relating and expressing ourselves about our own personal sexuality? If you are one of my followers, or you’re reading this and you agree please hit ❤ and hit reblog 🔄. Let’s make this go viral before December 17th.

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Like a lot of great artists, Thomas Eakins was not widely appreciated during his lifetime.  He was known to paint free portraits for Philadelphia notables who would either put them in closets or throw them away because his realistic style showed them as they were, and not as they wished to be.  In the age of Impressionism, much of Eakins’ work was scorned as too harsh and lacking in refinement.  His insistence on using and photographing nude male models to train students of both sexes got him into a world of trouble, but he persisted, and the practice became standard not long after.  The fact that he was probably gay and took a student and fellow artist, Samuel Murray, as a lover was apparently known to some, but kept under wraps for obvious reasons.

That is the big question when it comes to these two men.  Sam was the 11th of 12 children from a poor Irish immigrant family and came to the Art Students’ League in the fall of 1886 for its first full school term.  He quickly became a favorite student of Eakins, and then was made his assistant, eventually becoming in instructor for the last term of 1892-93.  The two shared a studio on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, often painting and sculpting from the same model.  They went on excursions camping in the forest and to the seashore together.  In short, they were inseparable.  Their friendship with the known homosexual poet Walt Whitman is described in another text essay in today’s series.

Eakins had faced accusations of homosexuality before he met Murray, and there were others later.  It should be noted, however, that at least some of those accusations were made by persons who had grudges or something to gain from discrediting Eakins.  (Eakins was also accused of abusive and exploitative behavior toward women, for what it’s worth.)  Both men married late in life, Eakins at 40 and Murray at 47, and both marriages were childless.  It was openly said that Eakins’ marriage was not for love, but to replace his sister who died after many years of looking after him domestically.  Murray did not marry until just weeks before the death of Eakins, whom he devotedly took care of until the end.  Several close observers, including some family members, commented that Eakins was closer emotionally to Murray than his wife.  Following the discovery of a large group of Eakins’ personal papers in 1984, more scholars came to acknowledge that Eakins was probably gay, but this is by no means the only opinion on the matter.

Ultimately, it was the accidental discovery of a letter in Eakins’ own handwriting found among his student Charles Bregler’s papers that provides the most convincing evidence.  The salient passage reads, “ … the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover on the cool night. In the stillness of the autumn moonbeams his face was inclined toward me and his arm lies light around my breast–and that night I was happy.“  The dating of the letter also leaves no doubt “the one” was Sam Murray.

“I never knew of but one artist, and that’s Tom Eakins, who could resist the temptation to see what they think ought to be rather than what is.” - - - Walt Whitman as quoted by Lloyd Goodrich

Thomas Eakins was taken across the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Camden, New Jersey by his journalist friend Talcott Williams and introduced to renowned poet Walt Whitman in 1887.  It was a momentous meeting that led to a strong friendship which lasted until Whitman’s death in 1892.  Samuel Murray had become Eakins’ student, model, protege, and friend in 1886, and it wasn’t long before the two of them were visiting Whitman together on a regular basis.  Both artists did work featuring Whitman, and the poet’s response was favorable.  (See some of today’s photo posts for images of that art.)  

Whitman and Eakins’ bond was probably enhanced by both men’s appreciation of the human body, especially the male, which Whitman’s poetry celebrated and Eakins’ art and photography so realistically depicted.  Whitman was fully aware of the price Eakins paid in Philadelphia social and educational circles for his insistence on making nudity part of his art and teaching curriculum.  Whitman had faced similar circumstances for his boldly erotic poetry decades earlier.  Any notion that Sam Murray was just along for the ride is dispelled by the fact that he was always welcome at Whitman’s home and was allowed to use the great poet as a model.

During this period, Whitman’s personal life also included his companion Bill Duckett, who allowed Eakins to photograph him nude.  Whitman and Duckett’s relationship is described in the caption of those nude photos in today’s series.