Eakins Perspective Study Of Boy Viewing Object 1910

Here's a drawing by Thomas Eakins, a kind of perspective study showing a boy viewing an object. Look at that little dude with his hand on his hip! I’m really interested in the kind of thinking a drawing like this demonstrates. I mean, here’s Eakins, showing the process of looking itself, almost like how a camera sees. Following those dotted lines back into space, like visual vectors, you’re almost in his head, seeing how he's thinking about space. Eakins was so deeply involved in showing things as they were, with scientific precision, but there’s something so human about this too. The awkwardness of the boy, the way the boxes shrink back...he is trying to work it out. And I feel him, because I am also trying to work it out, too. Seeing this drawing makes me feel like maybe we are on the same journey somehow.