"Not a painter, but a force, " declared poet Walt Whitman of Thomas Eakins. Born in Philadelphia in 1844, Eakins lived and worked in Philadelphia his entire life, apart from four years of study in Europe. The city inspired many of his greatest works, from his early paintings of oarsmen on the Schuylkill River to his now famous portraits of the city's leading surgeons. A gifted teacher, Eakins taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for roughly a decade, transforming it into the most advanced art school in the nation.