Men in the Museum: American Realism

This week we travel to Dove Lake, about 9 miles northwest of Philadelphia, on a hot summer’s day in 1883 or 1884. A group of art students from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts have come here to escape the heat of the city and have a little swim au naturel. Accompanying them is their professor, who has brought along his camera to make some studies for a painting he has planned. His name is Thomas Eakins, and the painting is “The Swimming Hole”, one of the landmarks of American Realism.

American Realism is a very broad category, spanning (depending who you ask) the entire post-colonial history of the United States, from the neoclassicism of John Singleton Copley to the hyperrealism of Kehinde Wiley.

For this challenge you may choose a single American Realist artist or create a new style in the spirit of American Realism. Either way, create a male portrait in this style.

For more information and inspiration see https://www.theartstory.org/movement/american-realism/ ↗️