The Concert Singer - Compositional History

Compositional History

It is possible that Eakins first saw Cook perform at the Art Students League of Philadelphia on February 22, 1889, and was inspired to paint The Concert Singer after seeing a photograph of Jules Massenet at an organ, with his wife open-mouthed, singing. Though anonymous female (and angel) singers were often shown with their mouths open in medieval and Renaissance art—as well as in later works such as Degas's Singer with a Glove, 1878—named singing artists were nearly always painted and photographed with their mouths closed at this period. So, like many Eakins portraits, The Concert Singer had an element of daring in its composition, although the mouth is not shown fully open.

Prior to painting The Concert Singer, Eakins made a small oil sketch, now also in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Although the sketch lacks the palm and roses, essential compositional modes are already in place, with emphasis on Cook's neck, the color of the dress, direction of light, and general design.

It took Eakins nearly two years to paint The Concert Singer. Cook posed for him numerous times, three or four times a week for the first year. Each time she did, Eakins asked her to sing "O rest in the Lord" from Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah so he could observe her throat movements; the portrait's specificity is such that some scholars have interpreted Cook as being shown in the act of "forming the e sound in the word rest." The opening bars of the aria are carved in the wooden frame of the painting. Eakins later wrote: "I once painted a concert singer and on the chestnut frame I carved the opening bars of Mendelssohn's 'Rest in the Lord.' It was ornamental unobtrusive and to musicians I think it emphasized the expression of the face and pose of the figure." This was a practice Eakins also implemented in his Portrait of Professor Henry A. Rowland, in which the painting of the physicist was shown in a frame made by the artist, with carvings of symbols and formulas related to Rowland's work.

The Concert Singer has been interpreted as a tribute to the poet Walt Whitman, who was warmly admired by both Eakins and Cook, and who was in his final illness at the time the painting was made. Eakins had met the poet in 1887, and completed a portrait of him the following year. Weda Cook had set some of Whitman's poems to music, and often performed for him. "O rest in the Lord" was a particular favorite of the poet, who asked Cook to sing it for him every time they met. Whitman was never far from the thoughts of artist and model as the work progressed; Cook later recalled that Eakins quoted verses from Whitman while she posed.

The painting was still unfinished when a rift developed between Eakins and Cook; one reason cited was his repeated request for her to pose nude, which Cook refused. Cook later described Eakins's "gentleness combined with the persistence of a devil", by which he persuaded her to disrobe "down to my underclothes" (possibly a reference to the "classical costume" seen in several photographs of Cook and her cousins made ca. 1892 in Eakins's studio). However, Cook later wrote that she had broken with Eakins over rumors that he had driven his niece, Ella Crowell, to insanity. Eakins finished the painting from Cook's shoes and dress, a circumstance that has been cited to account for a perceived awkwardness in the singer's stance and the placement of her right foot. Eakins and Cook had reconciled by 1895, when she, her husband, and her cousin Maud sat for individual portraits.