Thomas Eakins:
Max Schmitt in a Single Scull


Eakins looks toward the vivid bridge,
The mechanism of his brush and eye
Surgical and objective as a lens.
The ochres of a Pennsylvania fall
Fuzz toward the sky, the moment's poise preserved
And justified. The second bridge is red,
Deciduous branches bare. Red maple leaves
Grip sapless limbs. Mud flattens toward the water
Slipping under. By the first bridge a canoe
Is red and holds three men; a second scull
Moves pocking water with the pull of oars,
Its slaps just fading. Mallards fuss and drift,
A scull mosquitos by the distant bank.
Schmitt drifts back in the vivisected day.

Note:

The paintings referred to in the poem are
Max Schmitt in a Single Scull, 1871,
oil on canvas, 32 1/4 x 46 1/4 inches,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;
and The Gross Clinic, 1875, oil on canvas,
96 x 78 inches, Jefferson Medical College,
Philadelphia.