Ms. Amelia Van Buren

c. 1886-90 (130 Kb); Oil on canvas, 113.1 x 81.3 cm (44 1/2 x 32 in); The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. 

When my sister Lillian was working at the Phillips Collection in D.C., I had the honor of coming face to face with this work. Miss Amelia Van Buren was a young woman from Detroit that Eakins favored greatly. He referred to her as one of his greatest pupils. Depicted here, broken and ill, she became one of his greatest works.