16 FOOTNOTES Volume 2 (2009)
Everything for Young Men to Enjoy: Examining American Nationalism and Homoeroticism in Thomas Eakins’ The Swimming Hole
Daniella Sanader
Abstract Focusing on Thomas Eakins’ The Swimming Hole, this research paper
examines the painting as a landscape fraught with conflicting concerns. I explore The Swimming Hole from within the constructed ideals of nineteenth- century American masculinity and discuss how across its surface, notions of homoeroticism, athletic morality and nationalism engage with one another yet remain unresolved and discontinuous. This instability is explained through a contextual history of the nineteenth-century popularity of sports and recreation, the advent of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and the association between organized play and the growth of a moral American citizen. Eakins’ use of the male nude will also be examined, while defining the concept of the homoerotic as it relates to the painting. By tying together these varied themes, this research paper reaches a conclusion of how The Swimming Hole fits into art historical discourse, queer studies and the history of American nationalism.
They have everything for young men to enjoy, You can hang out with all the boys... It ‘sfun to stay at the YMCA. - “YMCA” by The Village People
Set against a picturesque backdrop of the American countryside, Thomas Eakins’ The Swimming Hole depicts a lazy afternoon shared between Eakins and five of his male students at Dove Lake, near Philadelphia. For such a simple subject, The Swimming Hole is a remarkably unstable image, and Eakins’ ambiguous artistic strategies have puzzled critics and art historians ever since the painting’s completion in 1885. The Swimming Hole proves to be highly problematic from within the constructed ideals of nineteenth-century American masculinity: across its surface, notions of homoeroticism, athletic morality and American nationalism engage with one another yet remain unresolved and discontinuous. I will examine this instability by providing a contextual history of the nineteenth-century popularity of sports and recreation, the advent of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and the association between organized play and the growth of a moral American citizen. Then, through an exploration of Thomas Eakins’ compositional and ideological strategies, specifically his use of the male nude, The Swimming Hole’s varied critical receptions will be discussed. It seems bizarre that such a seemingly innocent painting Manly
2
In
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the manliness
As
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place
nationalism.
case.
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Gulick’s
many
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Attitudes
concept
120.
independence
American
in
consequence,
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into
field
within
Kimmel,
instill
contain
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Benjamin
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within
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diminishes,
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in
modem
question.” 2
is
of
self-control
continue,
fundamental
American
the
(YMCA) that
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in
feminizing,
new
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of
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Manhood
late
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rendered
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lives and
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young
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citizen:
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YMCA,
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had
middle-class
art
Rader,
desire
in
rest nineteenth
sports
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corporations:
and
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life. 3
of
many
gymnasium.
the
historical
in
because
over
to
of boys
began
American
the
America: the
gender
“The
the
American
which self-regulation
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development
regulated
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be
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leagues.
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playground
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Halsey
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Theory
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emphasis
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FOOTNOTES
nineteenth-century
understanding
American
is
necessary
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Morality:
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carried
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York:
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us
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2
of of
118.
with
rather
teamwork.
the
there: will
which
(2009)
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Suddenly,
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Christian
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find
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could
one’s
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of
than
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To
of
in
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its
of
17
a a 18 FOOTNOTES Volume 2 (2009)
By engaging in organized sports within the regulated environment of the YMCA or an equivalent sports league, these young men were preparing to enter the adult world as responsible American citizens. Yet the characteristics learned through sporting activities, such as obedience, teamwork and loyalty, were not only emblematic of the law-abiding American male, but were highly valued Christian standards as well. Gulick wrote: “these values appear to me to be a great pulse of beginning altruism, of self-sacrifice, of that capacity upon which Christianity is based.” Thus American nationalism, Christian values and the athletic field became 4neatly bound together in the education of young boys, all held under the banner of the Young Men’s Christian Association.
In 1884, Edward Coates approached Thomas Eakins and commissioned a painting. As the board treasurer for the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, Coates had known Eakins for several years; Eakins was the professor of drawing and painting at the same institution. Yet when Eakins unveiled The Swimming Hole the following year, the painting was met with a lukewarm reception. Coates, who refused to accept the painting, and the rest of Eakins’ Philadelphia audience would have undoubtedly been perplexed by his compositional and ideological strategies, and little writing about the painting has been left behind by its contemporary critics. One writer for the Philadelphia Times found The Swimming Hole “not agreeable,” claiming that Eakins “evidently intended to show the results of instantaneous photography,” with little success. Yet no one seemed willing to mention the swimmers themselves. Evidently5 something about The Swimming Hole was too peculiar for them to process. On the most immediate level, the figures in the painting were all recognizable students from the Academy community, portrayed in the nude with their professor, swimming at Dove Lake, a familiar local landmark:
No one appears to have stated what must have been on everyone’s mind: the graphic nudity of academy students. Two of the students, in fact, could be readily identified by portraits of them hanging in the same exhibition only a few feet away from Eakins’ 6canvas. Yet on a second level, Eakins’ use of the nudes themselves would have been difficult for his late nineteenth-century audience to justify. In a time-period where organized sports were heralded as necessary for young boys to develop good American values, what kind of message did The Swimming Hole convey? These men are not at the YMCA or another supervised space; their play is uncontrolled and undisciplined,
Britain and America, 1800-1 940, eds. J.A. Mangan and James Walvin (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), 131. Quoted in Rader, “The Recapitulation Theory of Play,” 127. Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, The Revenge of Thomas Eakins (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 292. 6 Ibid., 292.
Group
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product:
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painting.
article,
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Eakins
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—
FOOTNOTES
willing
Philadelphia
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dedication
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faithful
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Volume
photographs.
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(London:
placement
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(Berkeley:
be
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relate
into
subjects
behind
to
2
the
methods
photographs
of
this
Academy
members.” 7
nationalism
felt
(2009)
to
behind
their
or
Hole
was
survived,
Fine
a
water. 9
study
become
Eakins’
upon
through
of Eakins’
type
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society
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of
of its
19
a
a a 20 FOOTNOTES Volume 2 (2009)
is the figure lying on the rock, based on the famous antique statue of The Dying Gaul. °
This process of idealization was most likely an attempt on Eakins’ part to justify his male nudes, to “allow ‘nude’ to function as a pure, undifferentiated 11sign,” yet as I have already discussed, his Academy audience did not find his methods acceptable.
Despite its uneasy beginnings, public opinion of The Swimming Hole took a turn for the better in the late l9lOs and early 1920s. Once the painting had gained enough distance from its original audience, its public meaning began to change. Suddenly, instead of an uneasy portrait of a professor and his students, The Swimming Hole came to represent an authentic image of historical America: a channel of nostalgic longings for a pure, pre-industrial time. One critic, praising Eakins’ painting, wrote in 1921:
I think you will feel that the dramatis personae of the swimming pool are real men and boys. Despite their nudity we recognize them as belonging to the early [eighteen] seventies. There is something about the way they wear their hair which gives the date. The man half lying on the dock is unmistakably an American. It is an invaluable statement of historical fact. So men looked and so men acted in these our United States during the lifetime of Thomas 12Eakins. Barely four decades after the painting’s completion, The Swimming Hole’s meaning had drastically transformed. From the uneasy critical reception that marked The Swimming Hole’s unveiling in 1885, we have come to understand that swimming in the nude with one’s students was not behaviour deemed appropriate during Eakins’ time. Yet in the early 1920s, these activities were suddenly seen as an essential part of nineteenth-century society. This change in attitudes can be charted through a variety of different avenues. On one hand, the space (both temporal and physical) bought with forty years of time helped to distance The Swimming Hole from its origins at the Philadelphia Academy, burying the uncomfortable familiarity of its swimmers. The Swimming Hole would have been a powerful agent of nostalgia for its 1920s viewers as well. Eakins’ remarkably realistic painting style would have undoubtedly seemed more authentic and traditional in the eyes of conservatively minded art critics of the 1920s, acting as a great contrast to the growing influence of abstraction of contemporary modernist work.
° Hatt, “The Male Body in Another Frame,” 16. ‘Ibid., 17. 2 Quoted in Marc Simpson, “Swimming Through Time: An Introduction,” in Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture, ed. Doreen Bolger and Sarah Cash (Fort Worth: Anion Carter Museum Publications, 1996): 4.
“Berger,
“Ibid.,
seems menacingly
“Quoted figures:
homoeroticism
dangerous homosocial
borrow
acting
meanings
of
define
nude aspects
6
Eakins’
Philadelphia
For
initial meant
came
transcend
knowledge
Eakins
reservoir
beauty,
reference
unmistakably
who
photographs,
near
and
past:
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and
twentieth-century
Hole
active
the
Hart,
this
the
modernity.
“The formalize
1910s
13.
and
claimed
to
a
an
is
the
self-contained,
to
in
“Man
reception
as
in
from
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their of
and
pure,
painting
Dove
As
remainder
painting.
represent
Simpson,
also
Yet
alleviate
Male
created
unadulterated
the
and from
painting
the
Thomas
to
a
closeness
Made,”92.
and
evaporated
short
and
his
seen
bodies
Michael
Body
innocent,
the
indicative
American
he
the
audience
concrete
Lake
implications an
that
connotations,
them.
a
contemporaries
works
the
“Swimming
This
in
1920s.
paper. manipulated
study
for
from
newfound
of
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distance
in
concerns
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as
terms
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was
Another homosexual,
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Eakins’
notion
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America
Hatt’s
of
this
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of
“to
its
pre-industrial
as
boundary
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of
provide The
by
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landscape)
use
image
of
Through
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as
figures
the
Frame,”13.
various paper,
the
between
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of
no
The
draw homoeroticism.
therein.
within
I
of
affirmation
is
allowing
thus
research,
painting’s
have
the
painting
urbanization
sculpture
social
painting
means
half
a
remarkably anxieties
that
would
seems
Swimming when
of
Time,”
from
the
nearby
to
calling
poses
an
however,
a
attention
and
already
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between
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Eakins’
must
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lying
social
stable
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term
historic
time
appropriate
a
4.
and
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in
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of idyllic
of
towards
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have
have
on
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homoerotic
fellow unburdened
his
receptions,
discussed,
Hole
by
and 1885,
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a
definition
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critics
Eakins’
I
The
to
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to,
society;
explore
ized
constructed
space,
both) 6
shall
the
harkening
painted
fantasize
struck
American
rolling
sexual
come
sexual.” 1
quality
to
FOOTNOTES
not the
was
Dying
urban
well
allegory.
for
given
dock
swimmers
to
and contextualization
consider
return
yet
subject
this
1920s,
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sim1y each
Consequently,
The
as a
of
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to
swimmers
aware. 15
one mill,
acts
with
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nostalgic
at
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back
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concept
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understand
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Swimming
to
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Thus
historians
This
of
as
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matter
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something
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current
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an
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examinations
Volume
barrier
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Swimming
yet
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“good
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evoked
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simultaneously
for
the
of
its
have
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The
quoted
to
social
with
with
athletic
final
between
2
a
problematic sort
urbanization
of
meaning
in preparatory
which
figure
each
to (2009)
examining
despite building
is
man-made
in
frame
Swimming
ol’
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the
come
Hole]
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nowhere
Eakins’
stabilize
various
of
its
portion
of
by
history
a
days.”
above,
of
nude
male
Hole
local
stiff
early
men,
both
as
the
the
the
the
the
To
of
to
its
to
of
21
is
in a 22 FOOTNOTES Volume 2 (2009) formalism which seems to acknowledge the awkward space between homosocial and homosexual realms that the painting occupies. Michael Hatt also argues, quite succinctly, that The Swimming Hole’s initial failure in the eyes of its Philadelphia audience is due to Eakins’ unsuccessful completion of the male nude. Throughout art history, the justification of the male nude has been granted through the artist’s ability to mitigate the potential desirability of its form. Hatt outlines four main strategies employed to this end: the inclusion of the male nude within an acceptable discourse (such as athletics or medicine), the scripting of the gaze as female, the nude’s reduction to a purely aesthetic form and the employment of hierarchies to create a sense of superiority over the 18nude. Yet Eakins’ nude swimmers do not meet any of these criteria: their legitimacy is compromised within the framework of art history at large. Thus if the nudes fail to be academicized, they invite the possibility of being read as merely pleasurable to the male viewer. It is valuable to note here that the female viewer’s place within this issue is moot; a female receiving pleasure from gazing upon Eakins’ nudes deproblematizes them by readmitting them into the sphere of socially normative heterosexuality.
The homoerotic environment shared by the figures in The Swimming Hole also becomes problematic when considering nineteenth-century ideals of athleticism as they relate to the development of American masculinity, a connection that I discussed with reference to the YMCA at the beginning of this research paper. Michael Hatt touches on this issue within his article, noting that the uncontrolled setting occupied by the figures in The Swimming Hole allows for the possibility of unregulated desire to surface within the male 19viewer. I would like to expand on these ideas through the inclusion of Luther Halsey Gulick Jr.’s theories discussed above. If proper athletics within the controlled setting of the YMCA leads to the development of the moral American citizen, then the unregulated play of Eakins’ swimmers can be viewed as decidedly un-American. Yet Eakins’ ambiguous painting strategies further complicate this issue; the free play of his figures is halted by their stiff formalized construction. Even earlier paintings by Eakins do not create spaces that carry the same degree of problematized homoeroticism. Max Schmitt in a Single Scull from 1871 is a celebration of socially normative athleticism within the form of the male rower. Issues of gazing upon the naked male body do arise in Eakins’ Salutat, yet this painting still remains within the relatively controlled space of the boxing ring. Nothing else within Eakins’ body of work seems to equal the idyllic “naked romps,” to use Michael Hatt’s words, depicted in The Swimming Hole, which undoubtedly°2 caused its uneasy reception and rocky history. Thomas Eakins’ The Swimming Hole holds a very bizarre place within art history, and whether or not this was his intention remains unclear. The painting acts as a site where conflicting issues of American nationalism, athletic morality and
Hatt, “The Male Body in Another Frame,” 13. 9lbid. 16. 20Ibid.,‘ 16.
is
inspiring
that
societal
or homoeroticism
create
quite
his
continued
ultimate
a
a
ideals,
cohesive
feat.
debate
a
The
weakness
engage
life
for
message.
Swimming
over
of
its
with
a
as
own
century
This
a
one
painter,
Hole
far
ambiguity
past
another,
after
has
yet
Eakins’
proved
its
the
completion,
yet
can
fact
lifetime.
ultimately
FOOTNOTES
be
capable
remains
seen
and
as
Acting
of
they
Eakins’
shifting
that
regardless
as
Volume
he
do
a
created
intended
its
filter not
meanings
of
2
converge
(2009)
for
intent,
an
strategy
various
image
and
this
23 to _____
24 FOOTNOTES Volume 2 (2009)
Works Cited
Berger, Martin A. Man Made: Thomas Eakins and the Construction of GildedAge Manhood. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Greer, Germaine. The Beautiful Boy. New York: Rizzoli International Publications Inc., 2003.
Hatt, Michael. “The Male Body in Another Frame: Thomas Eakins’ The Swimming Hole as a Homoerotic Image.” In Journal of Philosophy and the Visual Arts: The Body, ed. Andrew Benjamin, 9-2 1.. London: Academy Group Ltd., 1993
“Muscles, Morals Mind: The Male Body in Thomas Eakins’ Salutat.” In The Body Imagined: The Human Form and Visual Culture Since the Renaissance, ed. Kathleen Adler and Marcia Pointon, 57-69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Kimmel, Michael. Manhood in America: A Cultural History. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1996.
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