Earlier this week, a woman in Hong Kong paid $19.5 million for a Qing dynasty bowl that had been put up for auction by her own brother.
Yesterday, a 1954 Norman Rockwell painting hidden by the late cartoonist Don Trachte behind a fake wall in his Vermont home sold for $15.4 million. Trachte had successfully kept [...]

Yesterday evening, more than 125 people gathered at WHYY’c Civic Space to hear about The Gross Clinic and to discuss its fate. The tone in the room was serious and hopeful with a palpable sense of urgency. Speakers Elizabeth Johns (UPenn), Kim Sajet (PAFA) and Marla Shoemaker (PMA) provided a host good reasons to keep [...]

This evening, Eakins expert Elizabeth Johns will lead off a public discussion about The Gross Clinic at WHYY’s Civic Space. In her book Thomas Eakins: The Heroism of Modern Life, Johns makes the case for the painting as a unique American interpretation of a powerful international trend:
Most citizens on both sides of the Atlantic in [...]

Is The Gross Clinic medical illustration or masterpiece; triumph or trophy? The painting has always straddled different worlds with similar praises—sometimes uncomfortably and unhappily—and now it’s at it again.
William S. McFeely, in his newly-published Portrait: The Life of Thomas Eakins, only fans the flames. According to McFeely, Eakins hoped the painting would be shown [...]

There’s something for us in the old saying: “The Owl of Minerva only flies at night.” Even (and maybe especially) the Goddess of Wisdom benefits after learning the lessons of the day.
When you visit The Gross Clinic at Jefferson’s beige brick Alumni Hall on Locust between 10th and 11th, you’ll also be introduced to other [...]

In 1884, the same year Gross died, J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott published their fat 3-volume History of Philadelphia. Their glowing entry on the Doctor goes on for several pages (vol. ii; pp. 1623-1625) and there’s a full-page engraved portrait. (It’s engraver, Samuel Sartain, was the son of William Sartain, one of [...]

We find something on Dr. Gross in volume three of Joseph Jackson’s wonderful Encyclopedia of Philadelphia (1932), nestled between Gripsholm (a 17th century Swedish fort on the Schuylkill) and Grubtown (a less preferred name for the neighborhood of Crescentville):
GROSS, Samuel David—(1805-1884), surgeon, writer on medical subjects, was one of the most distinguished surgeons Philadelphia produced. [...]

So, who was this Gross? And why did Eakins choose to paint him?
America’s 100th birthday offered an opportunity for folks to step back, inhale, and take stock. And it was up to insightful artists like Eakins to capture and direct the public imagination. Throughout his career, Eakins mined everyday life for the unique and heroic [...]

On Thursday November 30th at 10PM, WHYY will air its documentary from 2001: Thomas Eakins: Scenes From Modern Life. There’s nothing better to put The Gross Clinic in context. You can view two short segments about the masterpiece right now at our website, but this hour-long production is not to be [...]

Even as great works of art go, The Gross Clinic cuts a wake of hyperbole. From the beginning it’s been a magnet for stellar compliments–and devastating insults.
Eakins himself never harbored doubts. In April 1875, he wrote to friend and artist Earl Shinn: “What elates me more is that I have just got a new picture [...]