Portrait of Dr. Edward J. Nolan

Dr. Edward J. Nolan was a Philadelphia physician and naturalist, secretary of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and a member of the intellectual and scientific community that formed Eakins's primary social world. Painted around 1900, this portrait is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the institution that holds the largest collection of Eakins's work. Eakins painted many Philadelphia physicians and scientists over his career, documenting the city's professional class with an unflinching directness that made him the pre-eminent portraitist of American intellectual life in his generation.

Eakins's portrait of a scientist and physician emphasises the qualities he most admired — intelligence, steadiness, the thoughtful gaze associated with systematic inquiry. The tonal handling is precise and restrained, building the face with careful attention to the underlying skull and musculature that give the head its convincing physical weight.