Eakins Painting Sells for $68 Million
Posted on: Saturday, 11 November 2006, 15:00 CST
WASHINGTON - The National Gallery plans to buy one of the 19th century's best-known American paintings, "The Gross Clinic" by Thomas Eakins, for a record $68 million.
The sale price sets a record for a pre-World War II work of art created in the United States, The New York Times reported.
The National Gallery of Art will share the work with Alice Walton, daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, The Washington Post reported. Alice Walton founded the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which is scheduled to open in 2009 in Bentonville, Ark.
Philadelphia has long considered the painting one of its cultural treasures, and it has until Dec. 26 to come up with a matching offer. If it can't, the National Gallery will probably display the painting in January, director Earl A. Powell III told the Post.
Anne d'Harnoncourt, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, said she hoped various groups could find a way to keep the painting in the city.
Philadelphia is the "most spectacular and appropriate context" for the painting, she said, citing the artist's long association with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the decision of Eakins' widow to give her collection of his work to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The 8-by-7-foot painting shows a doctor and his students performing surgery on a boy's leg, while his mother covers her face with her hands.
"This is the most important sale of a 19th-century American painting ever," said Marc Porter, president of Christie's Americas, which facilitated Friday's purchase.
"The Gross Clinic" was bought for $200 in 1878 by Thomas Jefferson University, a medical and health sciences school in Philadelphia. The school plans to put the proceeds toward a new education building and the expansion of other complexes.
Eakins' painting has been displayed in a student center art gallery, which gets about 500 visitors a year. The National Gallery has 4.5 million visitors a year.
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
Related Articles
- National Civil Rights Museum Honors the Dalai Lama, Myrlie Evers-Williams and Julius Erving for 2009 Freedom Awards
- $1.5 Million Grant From the Verizon Foundation to Fund Innovative Education and Technology Programs at National Law Enforcement Museum
- TV Detective to Talk on May 4 with Middle School Students Taking Part in an Innovative Educational Program with National Law Enforcement Museum
- National Coast Guard Museum Association Announces New President
- Art Bridges Gallery Adds Recognized Southern California Artists Online
- Obama and McCain Campaigns to Present Their Health Care Policy At National American Arab Nurses Association Convention October 9 and 10
- Legends of the Sky to Premiere at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Lockheed Martin IMAX(R) Theater in March 2009
- National American Arab Nurses Association Announces Joint Membership With National Arab American Medical Association
- Masterpiece Solutions, the Leading Art & Antique Gallery Software Provider, Announces New Release
- Eli Lilly and Company Donates $100,000 to National Law Enforcement Museum
 |
 |
User Comments (1)
| 1. |
Posted by Portrait Artist on 11/21/2006, 02:31 Wow! The price is already worth a fortune. I wonder what media were used to create the paintings for it to be priced that much. I wonder of they have something that is more affordable without sacrificing the quality. Other than some introduction and description about the story behind each painting would you mind posting a sample picture of it here? If it’s for the advertising part I suppose nothing is wrong when you post a picture of it in here. John |
RSS Feeds