Trying To Steal An Icon

This doesn’t have anything to do with politics (the kind I usually post about, anyway), but I would like to add to the chorus of individuals and concerned interests that are trying to keep the painting “The Gross Clinic” in Philadelphia. It is perhaps the masterwork of Thomas Eakins of Philadelphia, one of the greatest portrait painters who ever lived.

Eakins painted rowers along the Schuylkill River through part of his career, but he is most remembered for his portraiture which brought to bear his skills as an anatomist (capturing the poses of his subjects with uncommon precision). The realism of his paintings, which was largely unappreciated during his lifetime unfortunately, is what established Eakins as a “father” to American painting (as noted in the Wikipedia article).

The Philadelphia Inquirer has covered this story extensively for the last several days, noting the almost universal outrage over the pending sale. The news of the sale broke on Saturday.

As noted here…

The canvas, which Eakins saw as testimony to the city's educational and medical achievements, has never resided outside of Philadelphia - beyond temporary exhibition-related sojourns - since it was painted here in 1875. Jefferson alumni bought it for $200 and gave it to the university in 1878.

At the moment, the painting resides in the hospital lobby, and it is a big mural (about 6 by 8 feet, as I recall – it’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, though I guarantee you that you never forget it after you do…the screen images in this post really don’t do it justice).

What happened exactly? As noted in the lede of Saturday’s Inquirer story…

Thomas Jefferson University (is ready to sell the painting) for a record $68 million to a partnership of the National Gallery of Art in Washington and a new museum planned by Wal-Mart heirs in Arkansas.

(Feel free to insert your own “Wal-Of-China-Mart” related snark here, by the way…they may try to put a yellow smiley face on it somewhere, they’ll sell reproductions made in a third-world country for about 25 cents marked up to $29.95 in a point-of-purchase display next to about five hundred copies of the DVD “Click” starring Adam Sandler for $9.99 in time for Christmas, etc.).

By the way, I wonder how many of the people who got themselves so exercised about that dumb Rocky statue give a fig about this potential tragedy (Tony Auth’s cartoon in the Inquirer this morning nailed it - can't find it online yet).

And, as a sidebar under the “It Figures” category, the story notes that one of the board members of Thomas Jefferson Hospital who approved the sale is none other than Brian Tierney of Philadelphia Media Holdings LLC, who was conveniently of the country the day news of the sale broke.

And how does Thomas Jefferson University defend this monstrous development?

“…Jefferson officials are frank about their desire to cash in on the robust art market, arguing that they are ill-equipped to care for the work and that the funds could be put to more ‘mission-related’ purposes.

"This is a big undertaking, a transformational undertaking, and it requires a redirection of our assets," said Robert Barchi, Jefferson's president, discussing the planned $400 million to $500 million university expansion.

"We're not a museum. We're not in the business of art education," he added.

Mr. Barchi, you just earned my vote for Weasel Of The Year with that disgusting quote.

Let me make a suggestion, OK? I can respect the fact that you need funds for the hospital, so here’s what you do; put a tip jar next to the painting and state that any funds people may wish to contribute would be used for hospital renovation and expansion as well as costs to maintain Eakins’ great work so it can be viewed for current and future generations.

As noted in the Inquirer today, many doctors are furious over this development, with Herbert Cohn, Jefferson’s vice chair for surgery, noting that, despite the revenue generated from the sale for building expansion, “In 30 years, the building is obsolete and you have no Gross Clinic.”

Another incredibly repugnant aspect of this, aside from the secrecy involved with the sale (the city wasn’t invited in the bidding process), is the fact that Philadelphia only has 45 days to match the proposed new buyers’ offer.

If anyone who may read this knows of a site for raising money to keep The Gross Clinic in Philadelphia, please let me know so I can link to it from here.

The painting is the work of one of Philadelphia’s greatest artists. It was painted for a Philadelphia institution. It is a Philadelphia landmark.

It belongs in Philadelphia!

Update 11/16: This requires registration with the Inquirer to read, but I'm including this opinion column from Steven Conn because it is excellent.