Reverend James P. Turner

Details

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916)
Reverend James P. Turner
oil on canvas
24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm.)
Painted in 1900.

Provenance

Misses Anna A., Helen C., and Elizabeth A. King, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, cousins of the sitter, by 1933.
Vincent A. Carroll, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, acquired from the above.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, circa 1957.

Literature

L. Goodrich, Thomas Eakins: His Life and Work, New York, 1933, p. 192, no. 347 (as Mgr. James P. Turner).
S. Shendler, Eakins, Boston, Massachusetts, 1967, pp. 47-48, 92, illustrated.
“Art; Painting,” Time, August 15, 1969, p. 54.
G. Hendricks, The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins, New York, 1974, pp. 253, 350, no. CL-329, illustrated.
W.H. Gerdts, “Thomas Eakins and the Episcopal Portrait: Archbishop William Henry Elder,” Arts Magazine, vol. 53, no. 9, May 1979, p. 154.
L. Goodrich, Thomas Eakins, vol. II, Washington, D.C., 1982, pp. 194, 215, 245, fig. 239, illustrated.
J. Wilmerding, ed., Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and the Heart of American Life, London, 1993, p. 177.
S.D. Kirkpatrick, The Revenge of Thomas Eakins, Binghamton, New York, 2006, pp. 471-472.

Exhibited

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Institute, Twelfth Annual Exhibition, April 30-June 30, 1908 (as Portrait of a Clergyman).
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1969.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Thomas Eakins: Retrospective Exhibition, September 22-November 23, 1970, pp. 60, 71, no. 82, illustrated.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, William Penn Museum, 1976.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Frank S. Schwarz & Son, November 20-December 15, 1978.

Lot Essay

James P. Turner (1857-1929) was Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1902-1910 and the managing editor of the American Catholic Quarterly Review. A prominent participant in Catholic charities, he was a close friend of Thomas Eakins in the later years of the artist’s life. While the present work was painted before he became a Monsignor, Eakins painted Turner again in 1906. The later full-length portrait is in the collection of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.

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