1882-1883

The Meadows, Gloucester

American, 1844 - 1916

Eakins closed the Gloucester series with a brief flirtation with the Barbizon- or Impressionist-inspired styles that were then popular in American exhibitions. The Meadows, Gloucester, the only finished pure landscape the artist would ever undertake, was based on a photograph of the marshy pastures east of the banks of the Delaware River. The loosely applied paint eliminated the minute detail that necessitated projections, and Eakins chose instead to enlarge the photographic image by the squaring-up method traditionally used to transfer drawings to canvas.