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{{Short description|Painting by Thomas Eakins}}
{{Infobox Artwork
|image_file = Thomas Eakins, American - The Concert Singer - Google Art Project.jpg
|image_size = 300px
|title = The Concert Singer
|other_language_1 =
|other_title_1 =
|other_language_2 =
|other_title_2 =
|artist = [[Thomas Eakins]]
|year = 1890–1892
|medium = [[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]]
|height_metric = 191.4
|width_metric = 138.1
|height_imperial = {{frac|75|1|8}}
|width_imperial = {{frac|54|1|4}}
|metric_unit=cm
|imperial_unit=in
|museum = [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]]
|city = [[Philadelphia]]
}}

'''''The Concert Singer''''' is a painting by the American artist [[Thomas Eakins]] (1844–1916), depicting the singer [[Weda Cook]] (1867–1937). The work, commenced in 1890 and completed in 1892, was Eakins's first full-length portrait of a woman.<ref name=Philamuseum>[http://www.philamuseum.org/micro_sites/exhibitions/eakins/1890/main_right.html The Concert Singer: 1890–1892]. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved February 22, 2009</ref> It is now in the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]].

''The Concert Singer'' was one of a series of portraits Eakins painted of Philadelphia natives who were prominent in science and culture, with the intent of producing major showpieces for exhibition. The painting exemplifies Eakins's desire to truthfully record visual appearances with "historical value."<ref>Of his many full-length portraits, ''The Concert Singer'' is one of only two that Eakins painted of women. Sewell et al. 2001, p. 311</ref>

Eakins drew, painted, or sculpted at least twenty-two works that dealt with the visual aspects of music; at one point, this included "eleven straight portraits of musicians and musicologists", of which ''The Concert Singer'' has been called "the finest".<ref>Goodrich 1982, vol. II, pp. 83–84</ref>

==Composition==
The work depicts Weda Cook, a "respected [[Camden, New Jersey|Camden]] vocalist ... recognized for her 'powerful contralto voice, unassuming manner, and thorough training.'"<ref>Bohan 2006, p. 128</ref> She stands center stage, wearing pink slippers and a low-necked sleeveless pink dress, a luminous and central element in the picture, fringed with lace and pearl beads. Eakins's realism is notable in the painting of skin tones, with Cook's bare neck, chest, arms, and shoulders visibly paler than her head and hands.<ref>Goodrich 1982, vol. II, pp. 84–85</ref> The figure is solidly and subtly modeled, its warm light pinks set against a cooler and darker yellow-green background.<ref name="Goodrich86">Goodrich 1982, vol. II, p. 86</ref> Narrative details are minimal. In the lower-left foreground, a conductor's hand and baton are visible, although the rest of the figure is not pictured. Initially, as can be seen in the preliminary sketch, the hand grasped the baton as if it were a paint brush. For verisimilitude Eakins had Charles M. Schmitz, the conductor of the Germania Orchestra and Cook's teacher, pose holding the baton.<ref name="Goodrich84">Goodrich 1982, vol. II, page 84.</ref><ref>Johns 1983, p. 138</ref> A bouquet at the lower right suggests that the singer is performing an encore;<ref name="Bohan138">Bohan 2006, p. 138</ref> apparently a fresh supply of roses was provided at each sitting by the sculptor [[William Rudolf O'Donovan]], who had fallen in love with Cook.<ref name="Wilmerding118">Wilmerding 1993, p. 118</ref><ref name="Goodrich84" />

The floor on which Cook stands recedes into an ambiguous background, and despite several anecdotal elements, the painting is "remarkably barren",<ref name="Wilmerding117">Wilmerding 1993, p. 117</ref> though with enough information to suggest a public performance. Inconsistencies in perspective add to the ambiguity. The lower part of the dress, shoes, and flowers are depicted as if seen from above, yet the visibility of the soles of the shoes and underside of the dress suggest a lower vantage point.<ref name="Wilmerding117" />

The austerity of the composition marks a new and more abstract tendency in Eakins's work, presaging the increasing sense of isolation that would be characteristic of his later portraits.<ref name="Wilmerding29">Wilmerding 1993, p. 29</ref> In its design, cropping of details at the lower edges, and low angle of vision, John Wilmerding has likened the painting to the music and dance interiors of Eakins's contemporary, [[Edgar Degas]].<ref name="Wilmerding29">Wilmerding 1993, p. 29</ref> Despite formal similarities between ''The Concert Singer'' and works by Eakins's French contemporaries, there is a difference in mood: Degas' singers work in cafes, their glamor undercut by garish lighting, and [[Daumier]]'s essays of the theme are more cynical still.<ref>Johns 1983, pp. 130–131</ref> In contrast, the Eakins painting reflects an American appreciation for singing as a manifestation of high culture.<ref>Johns 1983, p. 131</ref> Unidealized, Weda Cook's figure is depicted as substantial and sensuous. It is revealed by a light that creates form, depth, and produces "the painting's profoundly poetic mood".<ref name="Goodrich86"/>

==Compositional history==
[[image:Sketch for The Concert Singer.png|right|thumbnail|''Sketch for The Concert Singer'', c. 1890. Oil on canvas, 35.6 cm × 27 cm (13{{frac|3|4}} in × 10{{frac|3|8}} in). Philadelphia Museum of Art.]]

It is possible that Eakins first saw Cook perform at the Art Students League of Philadelphia on February 22, 1889,<ref>Sewell 1982, p. 98</ref> and was inspired to paint ''The Concert Singer'' after seeing a photograph of [[Jules Massenet]] at an organ, with his wife open-mouthed, singing.<ref>''Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist'' by Henry Adams, Thomas Eakins. Illustrated edition. Oxford University Press US, 2005. {{ISBN|0-19-515668-4}}. Page 351</ref> Though anonymous female (and [[angel]]) singers were often shown with their mouths open in medieval and [[Renaissance art]]—as well as in later works such as Degas's ''Singer with a Glove'', 1878—named singing artists were nearly always painted and photographed with their mouths closed at this period.<ref>Johns 1983, p. 139</ref> So, like many Eakins portraits, ''The Concert Singer'' had an element of daring in its composition, although the mouth is not shown fully open.<ref>This was not, however, the first time Eakins had painted an open-mouthed singer; ''The Pathetic Song'' (1881) featured a young woman singing, accompanied by a cellist and pianist. Homer 1992, p. 117</ref>

Prior to painting ''The Concert Singer'', Eakins made a small [[oil sketch]], now also in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Although the sketch lacks the palm and roses, essential compositional modes are already in place, with emphasis on Cook's neck, the color of the dress, direction of light, and general design.<ref name="Wilmerding118">Wilmerding 1993, p. 118</ref>

It took Eakins nearly two years to paint ''The Concert Singer''. Cook posed for him numerous times, three or four times a week for the first year.<ref>Goodrich 1982, vol. II, p. 79</ref> Each time she did, Eakins asked her to sing "O rest in the Lord" from [[Felix Mendelssohn]]'s [[Elijah (oratorio)|Elijah]] so he could observe her throat movements;<ref name=Philamuseum/> the portrait's specificity is such that some scholars have interpreted Cook as being shown in the act of "forming the ''e'' sound in the word ''rest''."<ref name="Sewell261">Sewell et al. 2001, p. 261</ref> The opening bars of the [[aria]] are carved in the wooden frame of the painting.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=IB_mEI5fh4AC&dq=The+Concert+Singer+Eakins&pg=RA1-PA382 Kirkpatrick 2006, p. 384]</ref> Eakins later wrote: "I once painted a concert singer and on the chestnut frame I carved the opening bars of Mendelssohn's 'Rest in the Lord.' It was ornamental unobtrusive and to musicians I think it emphasized the expression of the face and pose of the figure."<ref name="Sewell261"/> This was a practice Eakins also implemented in his ''Portrait of Professor [[Henry A. Rowland]]'', in which the painting of the physicist was shown in a frame made by the artist, with carvings of symbols and formulas related to Rowland's work.<ref>Sewell 1982, p. 105</ref>

[[File:Degas - Cafekonzert Sängerin mit Handschuh.jpg|thumb|left|[[Edgar Degas]], ''Singer with a Glove'', 1878. "With its flattened design....one thinks of the parallel constructions of Edgar Degas's dance and orchestra subjects of the same period."<ref name="Wilmerding29">Wilmerding 1993, p. 29</ref>]]

''The Concert Singer'' has been interpreted as a tribute to the poet [[Walt Whitman]], who was warmly admired by both Eakins and Cook, and who was in his final illness at the time the painting was made.<ref name="Bohan138" /> Eakins had met the poet in 1887, and completed a portrait of him the following year.<ref>Wilmerding 1993, p.109</ref> Weda Cook had set some of Whitman's poems to music, and often performed for him.<ref name="Bohan129">Bohan 2006, p 129</ref> "O rest in the Lord" was a particular favorite of the poet, who asked Cook to sing it for him every time they met.<ref name="Bohan129" /> Whitman was never far from the thoughts of artist and model as the work progressed; Cook later recalled that Eakins quoted verses from Whitman while she posed.<ref>Bohan 2006, p 132</ref>

[[image:Weda Cook.jpg|right|thumbnail|Eakins' portrait of Weda Cook following their reconciliation.]]

The painting was still unfinished when a rift developed between Eakins and Cook; one reason cited was his repeated request for her to pose nude, which Cook refused.<ref name="Sewell261"/> Cook later described Eakins's "gentleness combined with the persistence of a devil", by which he persuaded her to disrobe "down to my underclothes" (possibly a reference to the "classical costume" seen in several photographs of Cook and her cousins made ca. 1892 in Eakins's studio).<ref>Sewell et al. 2001, pp. 261, 273; Adams 2005, p. 352</ref> However, Cook later wrote that she had broken with Eakins over rumors that he had driven his niece, Ella Crowell, to insanity.<ref>At first Crowell's brother informed Cook of Eakins's alleged culpability, but a year later rescinded the accusation. Goodrich 1982, vol. II, p. 136</ref> Eakins finished the painting from Cook's shoes and dress, a circumstance that has been cited to account for a perceived awkwardness in the singer's stance and the placement of her right foot.<ref name="Wilmerding117">Wilmerding 1993, p. 117</ref> Eakins and Cook had reconciled by 1895, when she, her husband, and her cousin Maud sat for individual portraits.<ref name="Sewell261" />

==Provenance==
''The Concert Singer'' remained in Eakins's possession until his death. It was exhibited several times during his lifetime, but he was unable to sell it.<ref name="Wilmerding117"/> Eakins thought well of the picture, and priced it accordingly: in 1893 and 1895 he asked $1,000 for it, raising the price to $5,000 in 1914.<ref name="Wilmerding118">Wilmerding 1993, p. 118</ref> In 1914 Weda Cook asked to purchase the painting, but Eakins replied that he could not part with it because "it must be largely exhibited yet", and because of its sentimental value to him: "I have many memories of it, some happy, some sad".<ref>Wilmerding 1993, p. 117; Bohan 2006, p. 139</ref> After his death the painting was appraised for only $150.<ref name="Wilmerding118">Wilmerding 1993, p. 118</ref> The painting was given to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1929 by Eakins's widow [[Susan Macdowell Eakins]] (1851–1938), and Miss Mary Adeline Williams,<ref name=Philamuseum/> the latter a close friend who lived with Eakins and his wife for long periods.

==See also==
* [[List of works by Thomas Eakins]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
* Adams, Henry. ''Eakins Revealed: The Secret Life of an American Artist''. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. {{ISBN|0-19-515668-4}}
* Bohan, Ruth. ''Looking Into Walt Whitman: American Art, 1850–1920''. Penn State Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-271-02702-9}}
* Goodrich, Lloyd: ''Thomas Eakins''. Harvard University Press, 1982. {{ISBN|0-674-88490-6}}
* Homer, William Innes. ''Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art''. Abbeville, 1992. {{ISBN|1-55859-281-4}}
* Johns, Elizabeth. ''Thomas Eakins: The Heroism of Modern Life''. Princeton University Press, 1983. {{ISBN|0-691-04022-2}}
* Kirkpatrick, Sidney. ''The Revenge of Thomas Eakins.'' Yale University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-300-10855-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-300-10855-2}}
* Sewell, Darrel. ''Thomas Eakins: Artist of Philadelphia''. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982. {{ISBN|0-87633-047-2}}
* Sewell, Darrel; et al. ''Thomas Eakins''. Yale University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-87633-143-6}}
*Wilmerding, John. ''Thomas Eakins''. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993. {{ISBN|1-56098-313-2}}

==External links==
*[http://websites.swarthmore.edu/kendalljohnson/eakinsconcert.htm Commentary]

{{Thomas Eakins}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Concert Singer, The}}
[[Category:Portraits by Thomas Eakins]]
[[Category:1892 paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art]]
[[Category:19th-century portraits]]
[[Category:Portraits of women]]
[[Category:Oil on canvas paintings]]

The Concert Singer - Revision history

imported>Doomhope: added Category:Oil on canvas paintings using HotCat