THE BIRTH OF CLASSICAL TECHNIQUE the center of the front page, above the fold.”477 Wearing blue bandanas, the Biglins had reached their turnaround stake, marked with a blue pennant, and were performing a river- turn around the stake. In the background, their opponents in red bandanas, Henry Coulter and Lewis Cavitt of Pittsburgh,478 had yet to reach their own stake and were looking around to line up their approach. The brothers had only just acquired their first boat with sliding seats. John in the Image Copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY Purchase, The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Fund and George D. Pratt Gift, 1934 (34.92) Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), The Champion, Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull), 1871 Oil on canvas, 32¼ x 46¼” (81.9 x 117.5cm) (background detail) Autograph and self portrait. actually rowed in the period before outdoor motion picture photography was possible. The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake shows the named protagonists at the halfway point of the first professional coxless-pairs race ever held in America, which had been prominently covered in the American press. “The New York Times, May 21, 1872 [the day following the race], placed its report in Philadelphia Museum of Art Gift of Mrs. Thomas Eakins and Miss Mary Adeline Williams, 1929 Accession # 1929-184-35 Thomas Eakins, The Pair-Oared Shell (detail), 1872 Oil on canvas, 24 x 36” (61 x 91.4cm) Compare relaxed shoulders to Eakins’ self portrait. stroke seat was portrayed steadying the boat, employing his blade as the fulcrum of the turn, while Barney in bow was pulling the boat around. What catches the modern eye is Barney, caught at mid-stroke and laying back generously with arms still straight. Could this be inaccurate or perhaps artistic license? Not likely. The American poet Walt Whitman once wrote, “I never knew of but one artist, and that’s Tom Eakins, who could resist the 477 Cooper, p. 126 478 Cooper, p. 36 133
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