Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011258The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake
About the Artwork
Before beginning a large-scale painting such as The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake, Eakins began a series of specialized studies. He outlined the space of the composition with perspective drawings, such as this sketch in graphite. Eakins also used figure studies when rendering a work, as well as landscape and architectural drawings and his own photographs (examples of which are elsewhere in the exhibition). The practice of using perspective drawings to work out the space of a painting dates back to the Renaissance, revealing Eakins’s academic training.
Exhibition history
Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). America Draws. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1984-March 17, 1985). Thomas Eakins: The Rowing Pictures. National Gallery of Art (June 23-September 29, 1996); Yale University Art Gallery (organizer) (October 11, 1996-January 14, 1997); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 19-May 15, 1997). American Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 19-July 12, 1998). Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 15-May 16, 2004). Manly Pursuits: The Sporting Images of Thomas Eakins. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (July 25-October 23, 2010).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Thomas Eakins (American, 1844–1916)
- Date
- 1873
- Medium
- graphite and brush and brown wash
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 35.5 x 43.1 cm (14 x 16 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Accession no.
- 1942.1066
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Open-access museum record · AT-00011258
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