Susan Eakins

Susan Hannah Eakins, née Macdowell (1851-1938) was an American painter and photographer. Her works were first shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she was a student. She won the Mary Smith Prize there in 1879 and the Charles Toppan prize in 1882.

One of her teachers was the artist Thomas Eakins, who later became her husband. She made portrait and still life paintings. She was also known for her photography.

After her husband died in 1916, Eakins became a prolific painter. Her works were exhibited in group exhibitions in her lifetime, though her first solo exhibition was held after she died.

She was the fifth of eight children of William H. Macdowell, a Philadelphia engraver and photographer, who also a skilled painter. He passed on to his three sons and five daughters his interest in Thomas Paine and freethought. Both Susan and her sister, Elizabeth, displayed early interest in art, which was encouraged by their father. Susan was given an attic studio for her artwork. Aside from her artistic talents, she was also a proficient pianist.

She was 25 when she met Thomas Eakins at the Hazeltine Gallery where his painting The Gross Clinic was being exhibited in 1876. It was also shown at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

Unlike many, she was impressed by the controversial painting and she decided to study with him at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which she attended for six years. At that time Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was considered the best art school in the United States. Before she studied with Eakins, she studied with Christian Schussele. Under Eakins, she adopted a style similar to her teacher's. She was the winner of the first Mary Smith Prize in 1879 for Portrait of a Gentleman and Dog.

Her sister Elizabeth also studied at the academy beginning in 1876. Other female art students included Mary Cassatt, Cecilia Beaux, Emily Sartain, and Alice Barber Stephens. They received a good education in art, but were restricted from painting nude male models. During her time as a student, she became class secretary, during which time she pulled for inclusion of women artists in the life-drawing classes of nude models.

She married Eakins in 1884. As director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Eakins had made the decision to use female and male nude models for the life studies classes for students of both genders. As a result of recriminations, he was asked to resign one year after their marriage. Even though he had support from some family and friends, it was a life-changing event that affected relationships in their lives and the Eakins' enthusiasm for life.

Eakins spent most of her time supporting her husband’s career, entertaining guests and students, and faithfully backing him in his difficult times with the Academy, even when some members of her family aligned against Eakins. The couple had no children.

Eakins painted portraits, many of which included family members, and scenes of domestic life. Between 1876 and 1882, Eakins exhibited her work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. While she was married, Eakins only painted sporadically. Both had separate studios in their home. She shared a passion for photography with her husband, both as photographers and subjects, and employed it as a tool for their art. She also posed nude for many of his photos and took images of him. In 1898 she became a member and exhibited her works at the Philadelphia Photographic Salon, including Child with Doll, one of her best photographs. She exhibited in 1905 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Of her paintings, Thomas Eakins said of her that she was more adept with colour than he and that she was "as good as a woman painter as he had ever seen." Susan Casteras, art historian, said of her Portrait of a Lady, made in 1880, that it showed her "firm handling and solid anatomical construction blended with generally dark tonalities."

After Thomas Eakin's death in 1916, she returned to painting, working nearly every day, adding considerably to her output. Her paintings were made in a style that became warmer, looser, and brighter in tone. In 1936 her works and those of her husband and sister Elizabeth were exhibited at the Philadelphia Art Club.

She died 27th December 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after which her ashes were mixed with her husband's. The Eakins' ashes were buried in the Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia in an unmarked grave in her family's lot. A marker was installed in 1983 by an anonymous donor. 

It was not until 35 years after her death, in 1973, that she had her first major exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1976, her work was included in the Nineteenth Century Women Artists exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

In September and October 1977, an exhibition was held of the photographs and paintings of Susan, her sister Elizabeth and husband Thomas in Roanoke, Virginia at the North Cross School.