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                        JeffNEWS, August 16, 1994
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Thomas Eakins and Susan Macdowell Eakins -  the Gross Clinic Connection 
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Susan Macdowell was reportedly so impressed with Thomas Eakins's "The 
Gross Clinic" when the painting was first exhibited in 1876, that she 
determined to study with the artist. Miss Macdowell wasted little time 
achieving her goal. That same year, she enrolled at the Pennsylvania 
Academy of the Fine Arts, studying first and briefly with the painter 
Christian Schussele and then with Eakins.

A leader among the school's most dedicated women students, Miss 
Macdowell won major recognition for her portraits and domestic scenes in 
the academy's annual exhibitions: In 1879, she won the first award for the 
best painting by a resident female artist, and in 1880 she won a prize for 
the most accurate drawing.

Her attention to draftsmanship, her solid rendering of figures and her 
penetrating interpretation of character show the influence of her primary 
teacher, Thomas Eakins. He considered her "as good a woman painter as he 
had ever seen."

Thomas Eakins and Susan Macdowell married in 1884, two years after she 
completed her studies at the academy and when he was director there.

"The Gross Clinic", which many scholars believe is the most important 
example of realist art in America, was purchased for Jefferson by the 
Jefferson Medical College Alumni Association in 1878.


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Information provided by:  Editor, JeffNEWS
                          (215) 955-6204
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