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Portrait Sketch of Maybelle Schlichter Unsigned, labels from The Baltimore Museum of Art and Babcock Galleries, New York, on the reverse. Oil on canvas (cut down and mounted), 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (26.4 x 21.3 cm), framed. Condition: Retouch, surface grime. Provenance: Through the estate of Mrs. Eakins to Babcock Galleries, 1939; to present owners, c. 1945. Exhibitions: Rembrandt to Rivers, The Baltimore Museum of Art, October - December, 1971. N.B. The lot is accompanied by a letter from Lloyd Goodrich, Director, The Whitney Museum of American Art, discussing the piece, dated April, 1965. Born in 1844, Thomas Eakins grew up in Philadelphia and later studied in Paris. His focus on portrait paintings grew from his appreciation of the candid humanism seen in 17th century Dutch and Spanish paintings. Instead of focusing on lavish, ornate detail aimed to impress the viewer, Eakins shows extreme but honest human emotion in his portraits. His talent and ability to create a somber yet frank tone has been rarely matched. Most of his portraits depict family members or friends whom he held in high esteem, and evoke a quiet yet inescapable sympathy. This particular portrait is a sketch of Maybelle Schlichter, a friend of Eakins and the wife of the referee in Eakins' famous painting Taking the Count. The sketch of Maybelle, number 308 in Lloyd Goodrich's catalogue of works by Eakins, is a sketch for a larger portrait which is listed as number 307 in Goodrich's catalogue. The larger oil painting hung in a 1998 Director's Choice exhibit at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington. Dating from around 1898, the sketch represents Eakins method of painting his larger works from smaller renderings.