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Letitia Wilson Jordan

Thomas Eakins

American Art

Letitia Wilson Jordan was the sister of Thomas Eakins’s friend and student David Wilson Jordan. Eakins had seen her at a party and was so taken with the young woman that he asked her to pose for him in the same outfit she had worn that evening.

The thoughtful, distanced expression on Jordan’s face evidences Eakins’s interest in conveying the emotional essence of his subjects. The careful modeling of the sitter’s body is characteristic of Eakins’s unflinching naturalism.
MEDIUM Oil on canvas
  • Place Made: United States
  • DATES 1888
    DIMENSIONS 59 15/16 x 40 3/16 in. (152.3 x 102 cm) frame: 68 7/16 x 48 11/16 x 4 1/2 in. (173.8 x 123.7 x 11.4 cm)  (show scale)
    SIGNATURE Unsigned
    INSCRIPTIONS Inscribed lower right: "TO MY FRIEND / D.W. JORDAN / EAKINS.88"
    COLLECTIONS American Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 27.50
    CREDIT LINE Dick S. Ramsay Fund
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916). Letitia Wilson Jordan, 1888. Oil on canvas, 59 15/16 x 40 3/16 in. (152.3 x 102 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 27.50 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 27.50_SL1.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 27.50_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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