The Architect (Portrait of John Joseph Borie, III, 1869-1926)

Inscriptions

Not signed.

Label

Although today he is the most admired American realist painter of the late 19th century, Philadelphia native Thomas Eakins adopted an austere, psychologically probing approach to portraiture that held little appeal for potential clients. He often chose his sitters from among family members and acquaintances. This elongated, full-length portrait depicts the Philadelphia architect John Joseph Borie III (1869–1926), who reportedly knew Eakins through the artist’s close friend Samuel Murray. In this work, which Eakins inexplicably left unfinished, Borie rests assuredly against a drafting table, suggesting his full command over his profession. Whereas his dark, somewhat rumpled suit almost disappears into the background, his face and hands stand out in sharp contrast. Eakins thereby draws our eye to Borie’s deeply thoughtful expression and heavily veined, muscular hands—tools of his trade and markers of his character.

From the 2019 exhibition American Art, Colonial to Modern, curated by Barbara J. MacAdam, Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art

Exhibition History

American 19th Century Paintings, Beaumont-May Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 4-October 31, 1974.

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

American Art, Colonial to Modern, Israel Sack Gallery and Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26, 2019-September 12, 2021.

American Classics of the Nineteenth Century, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, ; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland; The Currier Gallery, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1957-1958.

Art From the Ivory Tower: Selections from College and University Collections, Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, April 9-May 29, 1983.

Carpenter Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 18, 1978-May 1982.

Churchill P. Lathrop at Dartmouth 1928-1978, Strauss and Barrows Galleries, and Barrows Windows, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 20-November 26, 1978.

Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, April 1-June 18, 1968

Director's Choice, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 10-July 10, 1966.

Gifts of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Carpenter Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 11-July 11, 1976.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 2, 2009-present.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 1, 1985-June 22, 1997.

Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 16, 1997-May 8, 2007.

Portraits At Dartmouth, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 10-April 16, 1978.

The Dartmouth Collection: 19th and 20th Century Paintings, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 17-November 6, 1982.

The Protean Century, 1870-1970, A Loan Exhibition from The Dartmouth College Collection, Alumni and Friends of the College [under the auspices of the Dartmouth Arts Council], M. Knoedler & Company, Inc, New York, New York, February 10-28, 1970.

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, March 24, 2016-June 30, 2018.

Publication History

Kathleen A. Foster, Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press/Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1997.

"American Paintings in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College", THE MAGAZINE ANTIQUES, November 1985, by Barbara J. MacAdam, p.1025.

"Art From the Ivory Tower: Selections from College and University Collections", Clinton, New York: Hamilton College, 1983, p.22, ill. p.23.

Arthur R. Blumenthal, Portraits at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1978, no. 72, p. 76.

Gordon Hendricks, "The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins", New York: Grossman Publishers, 1974, pp.268, 331, no. 153.

"The Protean Century, 1870-1970", Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1970, no. 11.

Sylvan Schendler, "Eakins", Boston: Little, Brown, 1967, p.260, fig. 138.

Lloyd Goodrich, "Thomas Eakins: His Life and Work", New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1933, p.205, no. 467.

Franklin Kelly, "American Masters from Bingham to Eakins", Landover, Maryland: National Gallery of Art, 2004, 166 pp., B&W ill. p. 25.

Barbara J. MacAdam, Marks of Distinction, Two Hundred Years of American Drawings and Watercolors from the Hood Museum of Art, Manchester, Vermont: Hudson Hills Press, 2005, pp. 15, ill. p. 15, fig. 6.

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 68, no. 46.

Martha Burgin and Maureen Holtz, Robert Allerton; The Private Man and the Public Gifts, Champaign: The News-Gazette, Inc., 2009, ill. p. 44.

Michael Anesko, Henry James and Queer Filiation: Hardened Bachelors of the Edwardian Era, State College, Pennsylvania: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, p. 17, fig. 2.1.

Provenance

The artist; Adolphe Borie [cousin of the sitter], Philiadelphia, 1910-1933; sold to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874-1948), New York, 1933; given to present collection, 1935.

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