The Pathetic Song
1881
Medium
Watercolor on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
16 3/4 x 11 3/16 in. (42.5 x 28.4 cm)
Classification
Watercolor
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Joan Whitney Payson, 1975
Accession Number
1976.201.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Eakins’s *The Pathetic Song* (1881) captures a quiet moment of domestic music-making. A young woman stands at a piano, her voice filling the room as two companions listen intently—one seated at the instrument, the other absorbed in the performance. The title refers to the 19th-century term for music that stirs deep feeling, and Eakins renders the scene with characteristic restraint and psychological insight. A leading American Realist, Eakins was celebrated for his precise observation of the human figure and everyday life. Though best known for oil paintings, he turned to watercolor he...
About the Artist
Thomas Eakins · 1844–1916
Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) was an American painter, photographer, and educator who carried 19th-century American Realism to its highest achievement. Based in Philadelphia throughout his life, he created uncompromising portraits and genre scenes that depicted American life with a scientific precision and psychological depth unprecedented in his time. Born into an educated Philadelphia family, Eakin...