Carmelita Requena

Thomas Eakins

1869 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

After completing his studies in Paris, Eakins traveled to Spain in 1869. While in Madrid, he visited the Museo del Prado, where he admired the paintings of Diego Velázquez and Jusepe de Ribera. He then settled for the winter in Seville, from where he wrote to his sister that he was painting Carmelita Requeña, the seven-year-old daughter of street performers. This portrait sketch, made in preparation for a large multi-figure composition, reveals Eakins’s lessons in Paris under Léon Bonnat, who advocated the painterly tradition of the Spanish Baroque masters.

Artist

Thomas Eakins

Date

1869

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Bequest of Mary Cushing Fosburgh, 1978