Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was a well known realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts teacher. It is said that he is one of the most important artists in American art history. Many of his works were portraits of the people in his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he spent most of his career. In 1898 he painted a piece called Taking the Count which was his second largest canvas he had ever painted. This oil on canvas is on display at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. .
Since Thomas Eakins spent a lot of his career in Philadelphia and had a fascination with human athleticism and endurance, this was an actual real fight that took place in Philadelphia on Friday, April 23, 1998, between Charley McKeever and Jack Daly (Refereed by H.Walter Schlichter). The painting is of a fallen fighter (Jack Daly) who is struggling to get up from the last punishing blow of McKeever. The atmosphere around them has been switched to tense anticipation. Everybody in the crowd is starring down at the fighter and the referee who is counting off the seconds that could end the match for good. Eakins is trying to display to the world how some human beings have an amazing amount of endurance in them and just a mind set that will not let them quit. As Daly struggles to get up, Mckeever and the referee both seem to have a baffled look upon their faces. They are shocked that this man can take a beating and still get back up from it. Even as his coach on the side of the ring is wagging his finger at him as to say "do not get up you idiot" he still continues to fight through it. .
The way that Eakins uses color in this painting is really highlight the two fighters and their expressions of to what is going on. The back round is very dark as he used many blacks and browns. The two fighters who are both white stand out very well against the darkness. In the crowd a man in the top balcony is painted a lighter color than everyone else and also a little bit clearer to show that he is sitting with his head down, which now one else is doing.
