Thomas Eakins: Portrait of Dr. Benjamin H. Rand

Professor of chemistry at Central High School in Philadelphia in the 1850s when Eakins was a student there, in 1864 Dr. Benjamin H. Rand joined the faculty of the city’s Jefferson Medical College, where Eakins attended lectures before leaving for art studies in France in 1866. After returning from Paris, Eakins invited his former teacher to pose for what would be his first monumental portrait of a person outside his family circle. Completed in 1874, it shows Rand in his study, near a gleaming microscope and spectroscope (used for chemical analysis) that signal his scientific interests. A silky cat steps on Rand’s book and catches the eye of the viewer, representing a domestic world shared by the stylish lady’s crocheted stole thrown casually over a chair at the right.

Eakins’s controversial portrait of Rand’s colleague, Dr. Samuel Gross (which is hanging to the right in gallery 255), was painted the following year, in 1875. When its bloody realism was rejected by the art jury of the Centennial, the painting of Rand became Eakins’s most important entry in the exposition’s art gallery, Memorial Hall (now the Please Touch Museum). Critics noted the unconventional informality of the Rand portrait and praised its drawing, composition, and color.

Eakins gave the painting to Dr. Rand, who in turn gave it to Jefferson Medical College, where it remained until 2007, when it was purchased by Alice Walton for her new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The portrait returned to Philadelphia in 2024 for treatment in the museum’s conservation studio, where it has been cleaned and restored. The treatment was undertaken by Mark Tucker, the Neubauer Family Director of Conservation at the PMA. Tucker’s treatment of many of Eakins’s most important paintings, including The Gross Clinic, made him the expert in the field on the artist’s complex technique. With care, Tucker removed grime and old varnish and restored the sharpness of detail that had been eroded by harsh cleanings in the past, recovering the intimacy of this unusually informal portrait of a man of science at home in his study. The painting will return to Bentonville in May 2025, where it will be celebrated as part of a new installation accompanying the opening of expanded galleries at Crystal Bridges.

And to make us feel good about the person this portrait honors and the example set by his achievements and character, here’s a little excerpt from Julie Berkowitz’s book Adorn the Halls: History of the Art Collection at Thomas Jefferson University:

“Rand's teaching also stressed the professional and social responsibilities students should assume when they become physicians. In a commencement address of 1866, he cautioned the new graduates who were in the "flush of youth, full of hope and ambition, eager to plunge into the battle of life" to abide by the following [among their] duties:

To the sick—You owe all the skill, gentleness, assiduity, and patience of which you are possessed. If a patient suffers by your neglect, or ignorance, or rudeness, or petulance, you are criminal...

To the public—You are enjoined by the same Code [of Ethics] 'to be ever vigilant for the welfare of the community,' to give freely all information likely to promote public health and the ends of justice; in time of pestilence to face the danger and to continue your labors for the alleviation of the suffering even at the hazard of your own lives.”