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Max Schmitt in a Single Scull

Artist: Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (1844–1916)
Date: 1871
Dimensions: 82.6 x 117.5 cm
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States

Max Schmitt in a Single Scull shows the painter’s childhood friend, a champion rower, resting on his oars on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia on a still autumn afternoon.

A closer look

Schmitt turns his head towards the viewer, his narrow racing shell gliding on water as smooth as glass. Behind him, Eakins painted himself rowing away in another scull, with his name and the date on its stern. The scene is constructed with almost scientific precision: Eakins drew the reflections, the perspective of the bridges and the position of the boats geometrically before painting. The result is a quiet, luminous image of modern sport and friendship.

History of the painting

Eakins showed the painting in Philadelphia in 1871, his first public exhibition after returning from his studies in Paris, but it attracted little attention. He gave it to his friend, the rower Max Schmitt, who appears in the picture. In 1934 the Metropolitan Museum of Art bought it, and it is now regarded as one of the masterpieces of American realism.

Max Schmitt in a Single Scull

A closer look

History of the painting

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