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Gross Clinic: The Final Tally

The Gross Clinic by Thomas Eakins will stay in Philadelphia!

Dec 26, 2006 Mary Rayme

The Philadelphia Museum of Art and people all over the country helped to raise the money to keep the $68 million (US) Gross Clinic painting by Thomas Eakins in Philly.

Philadelphia scored a major win for its cultural heritage by raising the $68 million US necessary to keep the Thomas Eakins painting, The Gross Clinic that will soon be co-owned by The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Major contributions were received from the Annenberg Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, as well as some 2,500 donations from people all over the country. Because the museums have also taken out substantial loans to fund the purchase the fund raising continues. Originally, Thomas Jefferson University had given a deadline of December 26 for raising the necessary funds, but have agreed to extend the date until January 31. So you can still make your donation to the PMA anytime until January 31, 2007.

Eakins was inspired to paint the Gross Clinic painting because of Philadelphia's major contributions in the field of medicine. The large 8-by-6-1/2-foot painting was completed in 1875 and depicts Dr. Samuel Gross performing a surgery for observing students at Thomas Jefferson University. The painting was rejected as too gruesome at the Centennial Exhibition, but was purchased by Jefferson alumni to present to the University in 1876. No wonder Jefferson alumni were particularly irked by this sale.

The gracious losers of the Gross Clinic, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Bentonville, Arkansas (aka The Wal-Mart Museum) were quoted as saying, "We are disappointed that Eakins' Gross Clinic will not be coming to the nation's capital or America's heartland. However, we are pleased for the city of Philadelphia."

It is right for The Gross Clinic to stay in its contextual home and good that Philadelphians and others recognize the importance of this as well. The painting was only seen by perhaps a few hundred people per year while it was housed at Thomas Jefferson University. With plans for the painting to be shuttled between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, The Gross Clinic is destined to reach so many more. [Insert Rocky music here...] Bravo, Philadelphia.

The copyright of the article Gross Clinic: The Final Tally in Art & Society is owned by Mary Rayme. Permission to republish Gross Clinic: The Final Tally in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.