Portrait of Frank Lindsay Greenwalt 1903

Curator: This is Thomas Eakins's 1903 oil on canvas, "Portrait of Frank Lindsay Greenwalt." Editor: The immediate thing I see is how contained it is. All the dark colours feel like they are holding back some big, unspeakable thought or feeling. There's a density in those blacks and browns of his suit and then offset by the startling white of his collar. I feel held and restricted by the painting as an object. Curator: It's true. Eakins really locks in on the psychological realism of Greenwalt, who was a fellow artist. There is this intensity behind the subject's gaze and how deliberate Eakins has been in applying those colours. When you consider what a challenge portraiture became at this period with the development of photography, you realise that Eakins wanted to find out what a camera could not capture, what oil paint uniquely renders, beyond simple mimicry. Editor: Yes, because thinking about how it's made you begin to realize the labor here, how Eakins is building this face through touch and repeated strokes. This isn’t just image making; it's something almost sculptural, but through these really traditional material processes, and the layers build upon themselves to give you Greenwalt. Curator: And think of the sittings Greenwalt would have to commit to so Eakins could study and translate not just his appearance, but also his character! There's a vulnerability present in those light blue eyes but at the same time they reflect intellect. It makes you wonder about the dynamic of their relationship and how Eakins used his craft to really examine his sitter in this extended, intense, and shared space. Editor: Right, all this unseen physical and even emotional exchange went into the construction of this object we are looking at now, revealing the importance of social practice in a field which some tend to only link with individualism. We're looking at a social relationship made visible through material choices and actions. Curator: So, is Greenwalt rendered for posterity or has Eakins offered something deeper by committing so thoroughly to those processes of making? I sense that it has immortalized this deep artistic and personal connection beyond mere representation. Editor: Exactly! This artwork underscores the simple notion that artistic and social processes can give us more meaning than initially meets the eye.