Thomas Eakins and the Cultures of Modernity by Alan C. Braddock

Abstract

The central concern of Alan Braddock's Thomas Eakins and the Cultures of Modernity is how "human difference, diffusion, and artistic nationalism" are present in the oeuvre of Thomas Eakins (2). Braddock argues that Eakins was working as an artist before modern anthropological theories of "culture" emerged, yet it is very much this nascent anthropological understanding of culture that is at the heart of this book and, Braddock argues, at the heart of Eakins's painting practice.