Thomas Pollock Anshutz Biography | Oil Painting Reproductions

Thomas Pollock Anshutz's early art study occurred at the National Academy of Design in the mid-1870s, where he concentrated under Lemuel Wilmarth. In 1875 he moved to Philadelphia and took a class instructed by Thomas Eakins at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, a class that would form a cozy relationship between Eakins and Anshutz. In 1892 Anshutz wedded Effie Shriver Russell and spent their vacation in Paris, where Anshutz went to classes at the Académie Julian. In 1893 they came back to Philadelphia.

In 1876 Eakins started instructing at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the same year that Anshutz enlisted as an understudy. In 1878 Anshutz became Eakins's assistant, in the long run succeeding Eakins as Chief Demonstrator when Eakins was elevated to Professor of Drawing and Painting. In 1880, while still an understudy, Thomas Pollock Anshutz finished his initial major work, The Ironworkers' Noontime.

Around 1880 Thomas Eakins became involved in photography, fusing it into his classes and utilizing it as an apparatus for his works of art. Anshutz and other understudies at the Academy began to make utilization of the camera, posturing models and making prints for reference and study. Thomas Pollock Anshutz participated in Eakins's The Naked Series. He modeled for Eakins himself, along with colleagues who would pose outdoors nude, often wrestling, swimming, and boxing.

Eakins was compelled to leave the Academy in an 1886 embarrassment that was started by his utilization of a completely bare male model before an all-female and a male-and-female class. Thomas Pollock Anshutz did not safeguard his mentor he betrayed him.

Thomas Pollock Anshutz was elevated to Eakins' position at the Academy. Various artists studied under Anshutz, including Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, George Luks, Charles Demuth, John Sloan, Charles Sheeler, Everett Shinn, John Marin, William Glackens, and Robert Henri. Many of his students would later go on to form the Philadelphia Five group and the Ashcan School art movement.

Even though Thomas Pollock Anshutz experimented persistently with landscape painting, he was all the more outstanding for his portraiture, which won him various honors in the 1890s and 1900s.

Art Movement History: Realism.
Artists Influencing Thomas Anshutz: Lemuel Wilmarth, Thomas Eakins.
He Traveled To France.
Painters Thomas Anshutz Influenced: Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, George Luks, Charles Demuth, John Sloan, Charles Sheeler, Everett Shinn, John Marin, William Glackens, Robert Henri.
Artist's Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.