A May Morning in the Park (The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand)

Gallery 215, American Art, second floor

Main Building

A May Morning in the Park (The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand)

1879-1880

Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916)

Civic leaders in late-nineteenth-century Philadelphia stood out from those in other American cities because of their interest in science, medicine, engineering, and industry, which was incorporated into the city’s art and architecture. In addition to showing Fairman Rogers’s passion for four-in-hand coaching, Eakins’s painting captures their shared enthusiasm of optical effects that fueled a decade-long collaboration and friendship with Rogers, a civil engineer. Eakins used the new scientific information on horse locomotion that had been captured photographically by Eadweard Muybridge (English, 1830–1904) while also depicting the relative rotational speed of larger and smaller wheels to create a visual anthem to the sciences.

Gallery 215, American Art, second floor

Object Details

Title:

A May Morning in the Park (The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand)

Date:

1879-1880

Artist:

Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916)

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

23 3/4 x 36 inches (60.3 x 91.4 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

Gift of William Alexander Dick, 1930

Accession Number:

1930-105-1

Geography:

Made in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America

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Gallery 215, American Art, second floor

Main Building

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