"Thar's Such A Thing As Calls in This World," illustration for "Mr. Neelus Peeler's Conditions"

Reproduced as an illustration for a story in Scribner’s Monthly Magazine, this monochromatic wash drawing contrasts the body language of an industrious wife and that of her perennially lazy husband, Neelus Peeler, who justifies his lack of employment by claiming to be awaiting his “calls,” or true vocation. Rigorously trained in the art academies of Philadelphia and Paris, Thomas Eakins approached human anatomy and spatial depth with exacting realism, particularly evident in the foreshortened figure of the Peelers’ son reclining on the floor.