A Singer (Mrs. W.H. Bowden),

ca. 1906

Between 1900 and 1910, Eakins painted nearly one hundred bust-length portraits with the same dimensions as these two examples. Although varying in execution and finish—from the cool tones and broad brushwork of Charles Percival Buck to the warmer, more mottled effects of A Singer (Mrs. W. H. Bowden), an apparently incomplete work still in the artist’s studio when he died—Eakins’s late portraits are cohered by a stilled, introspective, often melancholy quality. As a result of the portraits’ frequently unflattering character, many of Eakins’s sitters refused to accept works executed on commission (one businessman paid the artist to take his portrait back), and Eakins relied instead on family and friends for subjects. While the reception accorded these two portraits is unknown, they are undeniably effectual characterizations of the complex inner lives Eakins perceived in each sitter.