Collection
/
American Art

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. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

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

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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Artists and makers

Thomas Eakins

5 works in the collection