Sketch for Portrait of Letitia Wilson Jordan

Eakins's sketch for his portrait of Letitia Wilson Jordan belongs to his practice of making careful preliminary studies before formal commissions. Jordan was one of the Philadelphia women whose portrait Eakins undertook in the late 1880s, producing some of his finest female portraiture. The finished portrait carries all his characteristic qualities — unflinching observation, psychological complexity, total refusal of flattery — and this preliminary sketch at the Philadelphia Museum of Art shows how he arrived at his final composition.

The sketch quality shows in the more fluid, exploratory handling, with Eakins working out the pose and lighting before committing to the finished canvas. Despite its preliminary nature, the face is already characterized with his typical searching directness.