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Sad, oh sad
By roberta
November 12, 2006 · 3 Comments
Whose revenge? My book review of a great biography of Eakins.
Poor Thomas Eakins. Almost 100 years after his death and he still can’t get a break in his hometown. I am heart-sick that Thomas Jefferson University is selling the Gross Clinic the crown jewel of the Eakins’ ouervre, just to chase almighty dollars for some expansion. This city is so overbuilt with medical institutions you trip over doctors’ offices, clinics, hospitals and rehab centers on every block. Like we need more?
It’s just depressing and shocking that an institution supposedly humane in its outlook and mission would sell an image representing its heart — and certainly it represents the city as well — and not even try to first broker a deal with local institutions before running to Christies and the Wall Mart people.
And that the painting will go to the Wall Mart museum whose name, Crystal Bridges, sounds like it will be full of Thomas Kinkade paintings, is equally wounding.
Calling all guardian angels, sugar daddies and sugar mamas, it’s time to step up to the plate. We need this gem of our heritage — Eakins best painting for crying out loud!! — to remain here and not slink away to Arkansas.
Tags: the gross clinic, thomas eakins
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Readers Comments (3)
How much $$$? Must be a huge amount for them to sell it.
This smells. Wasn’t there a similar arrangement with the painting from the NY Public library?
The National Gallery plans to buy Thomas Eakins’”The Gross Clinic” for $68 million. This sales price would set a record for a pre-World War II work of art created in the United States.
The Washington Post reported that The National Gallery of Art would share the work with Alice Walton, daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Alice Walton founded the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which is scheduled to open in 2009 in Bentonville, Ark.
Hi Mark, it’s $68M and my feeling is that the “partnership” between Wall Mart and the National Gallery will be fleeting and that the work will disappear into Arkansas just like the Asher Durand painting Kindred Spirits will. Durand’s painting is at the Nat-Gal right now but that’s because Crystal Bridges is not built yet. If you look at the CB website it’s pretty clear they intend to permanently house the work in Arkansas. I do not believe the Gross Clinic will be in Washington at the Nat-Gal for much time before it moves to its permanent home in CB land. Nobody from the Nat-Gal is saying how much $$ they ponied up. How much do you guess? Can they afford $1M? That’s a lot of dough. Most museums couldn’t swing that I’m guessing. So who really owns the work?