He was never interested in conventional beauty. Sober, pinched, reflective, lined and melancholy, his portraits remind us of that. But how many American artists said more about the sense of being in the world? Eakins was that extreme rarity, an artist who refused to tell a lie even in the service of his own imagination.

Thomas Eakins was a man of great character. He was a man of iron will and his will to paint and to carry out his life as he thought it should go. This he did. …

I never knew of but one artist, and that's Tom Eakins, who could resist the temptation to see what they think ought to be rather than what is.

Whitman: And Eakins - What of Tom Eakins. He is here. Haven't you something to say to us Eakins? Eakins: I am not a speaker. Whitman: So much the better - you …