Who's Who in Philadelphia

The proud boast of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the nation's oldest art institution, is that until some 30 years ago almost every eminent figure in American art had been either an academy teacher or student. Last week in its brick and limestone quarters on Philadelphia's Broad Street, the academy celebrated its 150th birthday and backed up its boast by displaying 254 outstanding paintings and sculptures by former students and faculty members.

The exhibit came close to being a Who's Who of American painting, sweeping from Charles Willson Peale, the academy's founder, and Benjamin West (first honorary member) to the Maine water-colors of the late (1953) John Marin. Included were the works of such figures as George Caleb Bingham, Mary Cassatt (only U.S. painter of the French impressionist movement), the meticulous realist William Harnett, and five artists of the famed "Ashcan School" of realism--Robert Henri, George Luks, Everett Shinn, John Sloan and William Glackens. Before the exhibition was under way, the U.S. Information Agency began making plans to send part of the collection abroad to show Europeans what has been accomplished by one American art school.

Off with the Loincloth. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has tried hard to live up to its founders' aims: "To unfold, enlighten and invigorate the talents of our countrymen." It got off to a glowing start when Philadelphia's Nicholas Biddle, then secretary to the U.S. Minister to France, flattered Napoleon into sending plaster casts of the classic statues his armies had just looted from Italy. From other donors came more contributions, including one shipment of paintings from Europe which was captured by the British in the War of 1812, released only after British courts held them not to be rightful prizes of war.

From the start, conservative Philadelphia businessmen admired classic models (later covered by fig leaves); artists wanted their nature in the raw. In 1795 Artist Peale had struck the first blow for the artists, heroically stripped to the skin when an overmodest baker, hired as a model, refused to take off his breeches. But even with Peale's influence, a life class was not put in the academy's curriculum until 1812. Nudity also ended the academy's Golden Age, the decade 1876-86, when the school was dominated by Thomas Eakins. He revolutionized art teaching, insisted that students draw from nature, based his training on the study of the human form, emphasized dissection and anatomy. But when Eakins removed a male model's loincloth before the women's class, a contingent of skittish females indignantly complained to the directors. Eakins insisted that either loincloths or he must go. When the academy's officials turned down his ultimatum, Eakins resigned.

In with the Moderns. Not all students found the academy to their liking. George Caleb Bingham left after three months. Philadelphia Painter George Biddle described his alma mater as "that august and timorous body, waddling slowly forward...with the gravity and self-esteem of any well-fed and successful gander." But in 1920 the academy was persuaded to open its doors to a big show of modern European art. Three years later the academy exhibit of the modern Europeans, organized by the late Philadelphia collector Dr. Albert C. (Argyrol) Barnes, included Modigliani, Matisse, Picasso.

Today the academy's 200 selected students get a well-rounded course in fine arts, are taught by such artists as Franklin Watkins and Walter Stuempfig. But Teacher Eakins would count his battle in vain. In the academy, male models still pose in loincloths.

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