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Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), Portrait of Dr Albert C. Getchell, 1907, American. Oil on canvas. 61 x 51 cm. Courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh (http://www.ncartmuseum.org); purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina.

When Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) painted Portrait of Dr Albert C. Getchell (cover) in 1907, he was 63, Getchell, 50. It was one of some 145 portraits he did in a similar, almost formulaic style, beginning in 1870 and continuing through 1910. In what biographer Lloyd Goodrich (Thomas Eakins. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press; 1982) calls almost an "obsession," well over half of them were painted in only a 10-year period, 1900 to 1910. Thus, Getchell's portrait comes late in the series. So-called head and bust portraits, they were of medium size (usually 24 by 20 inches), had plain (or empty) backgrounds, and pictured head and shoulders only. . . . [Full Text of this Article]