Baby at Play

1876

Thomas Eakins

Artist, American, 1844 - 1916

On the brick pavement of a sunny veranda, a young toddler leans heavily on her right arm, to our left, as she reaches for a wooden block in this horizontal painting. Much of her face is cast in deep shadow from the bright light overhead, but light brushes the tops of her cheeks and the tip of her nose. She grips a wooden block with her left hand, closer to us. Her left leg stretches to our right in a stocking striped with vivid red and white. Light glints off the shiny material of her black, round-toed slipper. She has short, golden-brown hair, and her white smock is richly embroidered in a pattern of white-one-white with alternating linked loops. Scattered before her, at arms-length, are seven other alphabet blocks lettered in gray with red and tan faces, several wooden building blocks, and a ball of red yarn. A doll in a black dress lies with limbs akimbo, face-down by a potted plant at the right edge of the canvas. A red wagon drawn by white toy horse sits near the left edge. The scene is enclosed with a deep, emerald-green hedge stretching across the background. The artist signed and dated this work as if he had inscribed two of the bricks on the patio with red paint in cursive script, in the lower right corner: “Eakins 76.”

Media Options

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Baby at Play is the final work in a series of intimate portraits of family and friends created by Eakins between 1870 and 1876. The painting depicts the artist's two–and–a–half–year–old niece, Ella Crowell. Dressed in an intricately embroidered white frock, her legs clad in red–and–white striped stockings, the child is soberly absorbed at play.

According to one recent interpretation, Eakins was depicting Ella's initial foray into the adult world of education and learning. Having temporarily cast aside her more infantile toys in favor of alphabet blocks—the tools of language—the child now seems ready to enter the next critical stage in her intellectual development.

The monumentality of her painted form may seem surprising, considering the diminutive stature of Eakins' model. Her life–sized figure is arranged in a stable pyramidal block at the composition's center and the deft handling of light and shadow further emphasizes spatial volume. Eakins' choice of a lowered vantage point encourages the spectator to adopt a child's point of view. His penetrating psychological insight elevates this picture from a sentimental genre scene to a highly serious portrayal of an earnest, intelligent child.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I, pages 162-167, which is available as a free PDF at https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-19th-century-part-1.pdf

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    John Hay Whitney Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 81.9 x 122.8 cm (32 1/4 x 48 3/8 in.)
    framed: 106.7 x 147.3 cm (42 x 58 in.)

  • Accession

    1982.76.5

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Mrs. William J. Crowell, the artist's sister, Avondale, Pennsylvania; her son, James W. Crowell [1888-1954], Claremont, California. (Babock Galleries, New York); sold May 1944 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold April 1946 to Charles G. Lang [1890-1956], Baltimore; consigned 1950 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold May 1954 to John Hay Whitney [1904-1982], Manhasset, New York; [1] deeded 1982 to the John Hay Whitney Charitable Trust, New York; gift 1982 to NGA.
[1] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Stock book no. 9, no. A2913; Consignment book no. 4, no. CA3641; Sales book no. 17, no. CA3641 (copies in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1935

  • American Painting, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1935, no. 100, repro.

1936

  • Thomas Eakins 1844-1916: A Retrospective Exhibition of His Paintings, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1936-1937, no. 1, as Child Playing.

1939

  • Exhibition of Paintings by Thomas Eakins, Kleemann Galleries, New York, 1939, no. 17.

1944

  • A Loan Exhibition of the Works of Thomas Eakins 1844-1944 Commemorating the Centennial of His Birth, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, June-July 1944, no. 12.

  • A Loan Exhibition of the Works of Thomas Eakins 1844-1944 Commemorating the Centennial of His Birth, Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, Delaware, October 1944, no. 12, repro.

1948

  • 19th and 20th Century European and American Art, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, June-July 1948, no. 34.

  • Romantic America, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, October-November 1948, no. 11, as Child with the Blocks.

1949

  • Homer, Eakins, Ryder, Inness and Their French Contemporaries: A Loan Exhibition of Famous Paintings from Foremost American Museums and Collectors, Fort Worth Art Association, Texas, 1949, no. 21, repro.

1956

  • Pictures Collected by Yale Alumni, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 1956, no. 67.

1960

  • The John Hay Whitney Collection, Tate Gallery, London, 1960-1961, no. 26.

1961

  • Thomas Eakins: A Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Art Institute of Chicago; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1961-1962, no. 22.

1970

  • Thomas Eakins Retrospective Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1970, no. 25, repro.

1982

  • Thomas Eakins: Artist of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1982, no. 7.

1983

  • The John Hay Whitney Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983, no. 69, repro.

1987

  • A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art [inaugural exhibition], Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1987, not in cat.

1993

  • Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and the Heart of American Life, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1993-1994, no. 14, repro.

1998

  • Gifts to the Nation from Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998-1999, no cat.

2001

  • Thomas Eakins: American Realist, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Musée d'Orsay, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001-2002, pl. 18.

2006

  • Young America: Childhood in 19th-Century Art and Culture, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Portland (Maine) Museum of Art, 2006-2007, not in catalogue (shown only in Washington and Portland)

Bibliography

1930

  • Goodrich, Lloyd. "Thomas Eakins, Realist." Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin 25 (March 1930): 18, no. 17, as Baby at Play on the Floor.

1933

  • Goodrich, Lloyd. Thomas Eakins: His Life and Work. New York, 1933: 169.

1939

  • Barker, Virgil. "Imagination in Thomas Eakins." Parnassus 11 (November 1939): repro. 10.

1944

  • Ormsbee, Thomas Hamilton. "American Realist Painter." American Collector 13 (July 1944): repro. 6.

1946

  • McHenry, Margaret. Thomas Eakins, Who Painted. Privately printed for the author, Oreland, Pennsylvania, 1946: 100.

1959

  • Porter, Fairfield. Thomas Eakins. New York, 1959: repro. 24.

1961

  • The John Hay Whitney Collection. Exh. cat. Tate Gallery, London, 1961: no. 26.

1967

  • Schendler, Sylvan. Eakins. Boston, 1967: 70, repro. 71.

1971

  • Moynihan, Rodrigo. "The Odd American." Art News 69 (January 1971): 51-52, repro. 50.

1974

  • Hendricks, Gordon. The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins. New York, 1974: 111, pl. 20.

1982

  • Goodrich, Lloyd. Thomas Eakins. 2 vols. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1982: 1:79, color repro. 78.

  • Sewell, Darrel. Thomas Eakins: Artist of Philadelphia. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Philadelphia, 1982: 10, repro. 11.

1983

  • Rewald, John. The John Hay Whitney Collection. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983: no. 69.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 553, no. 841, color repro.

1985

  • Prown, Jules David. "Thomas Eakins' Baby at Play." Studies in the History of Art 18 (1985): 121-127, repro. 125.

1986

  • Parry, Ellwood C., III. "Some Distant Relatives and American Cousins of Thomas Eakins's Children at Play." The American Art Journal 18 (1986): 21-41, repro. 21.

1987

  • Fried, Michael. Realism, Writing, Disfiguration: On Thomas Eakins and Stephen Crane. Chicago, 1987: 22, 77, repro. 26.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 130, no. 42, color repro.

  • Wilmerding, John. "America's Young Masters: Raphelle, Rembrandt, and Rubens." In Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr. Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Washington, D.C., 1988: 89-90, repro.

1991

  • Wilmerding, John. American Views: Essays on America Art. Princeton, 1991: 338 n. 50.

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 292, color repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 165, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 242, repro.

  • Homer, William Innes. Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art. New York, 1992: 91, 93, color repro. 92.

1993

  • Wilmerding, John, et al. Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and the Heart of American Life. Exh. cat. National Portrait Gallery, London, 1993: 25, 64, note 1, 82-83, repros. 24 (detail), 82.

1996

  • Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 162-167, color repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 312, no. 252, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower right on brick pavement: Eakins / 76

Wikidata ID

Q20188809

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