Dr. Agnew (Dr. D. Hayes Agnew) (1818–1892) Artist: Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916)

ca. 1889

American Paintings and Sculpture

Not on view


The University of Pennsylvania’s medical class of 1889 commissioned from Thomas Eakins a portrait to mark the retirement of their beloved professor Dr. David Hayes Agnew. The surgeon was not only esteemed for his teaching but also renowned for his practice of antisepsis, a major advance in medical hygiene. Eakins shows the white-gowned Agnew in the operating theater, gesturing with one hand and holding a scalpel in the other, as if lecturing to his students. This portrait is a study for the larger canvas The Agnew Clinic (1889, University of Pennsylvania Art Collection, Philadelphia).

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

49 × 31 1/2 in. (124.5 × 80 cm)

Credit Line

Bequest of Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903

Accession Number

1961.18.16

Geography

Made in United States

Culture

American

Period

19th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
The artist (1844–1916), Philadelphia; sold to Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951), Merion, Penn.,1914; Barnes Foundation, Merion, Penn., 1914–44; sold to Stephen Carlton Clark (1882–1960), probably 1944; bequeathed to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1961
Bibliography
  • Steven Conn et al., An Eakins Masterpiece Restore: Seeing The Gross Clinic Anew, eds. Kathleen A. Foster and Mark Tucker (Philadephia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2012), 86, fig. 7.2
  • Helen A. Cooper et al., Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008), 239, no. 135, ill
  • Michael Conforti et al., The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings, exh. cat. (Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2006), 176–77, 316, 325, fig. 144
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

figures (representations), genre (visual works), human figures (visual works), portraits

Subject

physicians science

Signed

Signed lower right "STUDY FOR THE/ AGNEW POR-/TRAIT EAKINS."

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