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I have many memories of it, some happy, some sad

EAKINS, THOMAS. (1844-1916). America’s finest realist painter known for his expressive and richly emotional portraits. ALS. (“Thomas Eakins”). 1p. 8vo. Philadelphia, February 17, 1914. To Camden, New Jersey, opera singer Weda Cook (1867-1937), the enigmatic subject of several of his major paintings.

I was very glad to have your note. I cannot however part with the picture. It must be largely exhibited yet. I have many memories of it, some happy, some sad. Your boy can see it any time. Probably it will be his some day but not now. I have been very sick but the physician assures me that I will recover…

Eakins was a close friend of Camden poet Walt Whitman, whose portrait he painted, and it is likely that he first met Weda Cook at the author’s home. Cook sang at the anniversary festivities at Eakins’ Art Students League in 1889, prompting Eakins, perhaps, to begin the portrait the following year. Entitled The Concert Singer, it was Eakins’ first full-length female portrait. Cook modeled for the painting several times a week, and Eakins worked on the portrait for two years. During their sessions, Eakins asked Cook to sing parts of Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah in order to capture her, literally, in the act of singing. Their friendship and her modeling were interrupted for a time when “after hearing scandalous stories about Eakins’s character, [she] stopped posing for the picture,” probably accounting for the mixed emotions Eakins felt when viewing his painting and expressed in our letter, (Thomas Eakins, Wilmerding).   

“Although never able to sell this painting, Eakins thought highly of it. He exhibited the painting several times during his lifetime and reportedly had it hung above his mantelpiece in the downstairs front hall of his home. In 1914, twenty-two years after completing the portrait, Eakins wrote to Cook in response to her request for the painting that he could not part with it as ‘it must be largely exhibited yet,’” (ibid.). The Concert Singer had been priced at $1000 in 1893 and 1895, making it one of Eakins most expensive paintings. Following the 1914 sale of the study for Dr. D. Hayes Agnew for $4000, Eakins raised the price of The Concert Singer to $5000 later that same year. Following his death, the painting was appraised for $150, and Eakins’ widow later donated it to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it still hangs.

            Accompanied by a photograph of Cook by John Wright, probably used by Eakins for another portrait he did of her simply entitled Weda Cook. The unevenly penned lines of our letter are in Eakins elegant and artistic hand, but clearly display the effects of his failing health. Folded with a tear affecting one word. With mounting traces on the verso and in very good condition. Exceptionally rare.

Item #16964

Price: $15,000