ThirstyFish

The bronze and granite sculpture that you see in the foreground facing Philadelphia City Hall, is George Washington mounted on a horse. The sculpture is set on Eakins Oval, just in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The oval is named after Thomas Eakins, a realist painter, sculptor, photographer, and fine arts educator. Now acknowledged as one of the most important artists in American art history, Eakins, like numerous other artists, received little official recognition during his lifetime.

During an age when photography was still dismissed as a shortcut by traditional artists, Thomas Eakins is credited for having "introduced the camera to the American art studio". His studies in photographic motion are especially important in the examination of sequential motion, which he translated to paintings such as The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand depicting the true gait of the four horses pulling a coach. Think how difficult it must have been for an artist to draw the gaits of multiple horses before the advent of photography.

Song of the Day: Senses Working Overtime - XTC (1982)