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Thomas Eakins

Baseball Players Practicing

Maker

Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916)

Title

Baseball Players Practicing

Year

1875

Medium

  • Watercolor over charcoal on paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Watercolor over charcoal on paper

Materials

charcoal, watercolor

Supports

  • Medium weight,
  • hand made,
  • wove paper

Dimensions

Plate: 27 x 20.2 cm (10 5/8 x 7 15/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed, at left of batter:EAKINS 75

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Jesse Metcalf Fund and Walter H. Kimball Fund

Object Number

36.172

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Publications

  • Books

A Handbook of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

  • Books

Selected Works

Exhibition History

Landscape and Leisure
19th-Century American Drawings from the Collection
Mar 13, 2015 – Jul 19, 2015

Label copy

This detailed watercolor is Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins’s only major work devoted to the developing professional sport of baseball. Eakins was eager to find modern American subjects that could enlarge the tradition of historical figure painting, and sculling, sailing, swimming, and boxing offered him the opportunity to showcase superbly defined bodies. In a letter of 1875 to artist Everett Shinn, Eakins pointed out that the ballplayers were portraits of the Athletics, a Philadelphia club, at practice. They were “very fine in their build,” he told Shinn, and the scene would “admit of fine figure painting.”

Tradition and Innovation in American Watercolors
Jan 27, 1999 – Apr 11, 1999

Label copy

This detailed illustration of Philadelphia Athletics players Wes Fisler and John Clapp was built up of tiny brushstrokes of wash applied in many thin layers. Eakins, who was very interested in photography, probably used a camera to capture this scene and then worked up the image in his studio.

Selection 1
American Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum's Collection
Dec 30, 1971 – Jan 23, 1972
American Watercolors and Drawings from the 19th and 20th Centuries
May 20, 1947 – Oct 19, 1947

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916)
Baseball Players Practicing, 1875
Watercolor over charcoal on paper
Plate: 27 x 20.2 cm (10 5/8 x 7 15/16 inches)
Jesse Metcalf Fund and Walter H. Kimball Fund 36.172

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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