Letitia Wilson Jordan

Thomas Eakins

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

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.

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) frame: 68 7/16 x 48 11/16 x 4 1/2 in. (173.8 x 123.7 x 11.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 27.50. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 27.50_SL1.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

American Art

Title

Letitia Wilson Jordan

Date

1888

Geography

Place made: United States

Medium

Oil on canvas

Classification

Painting

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)

Signatures

Unsigned

Inscriptions

Inscribed lower right: "TO MY FRIEND / D.W. JORDAN / EAKINS.88"

Credit Line

Dick S. Ramsay Fund

Accession Number

27.50

Rights

No known copyright restrictions

This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

Frequent Art Questions

  • Can you give me more info on Letitia Jordan?

    Jordan was the sister of a painter who was one of Eakins' students. She married a Connecticut clergyman named Leonard Woolsey Bacon. Eakins was so taken by her at a social gathering that he insisted he had to paint her. She is dressed in typical fashion for the 1880’s, wearing a sleeveless black evening gown and bright red choker, an accessory popularized by Alexandra, Princess of Wales.

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