PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Through his years as an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy, Thomas Eakins compiled his lectures and illustrations into a manuscript for a drawing instruction manual, which was never published during his lifetime. Point of Sight reveals these original illustrations more than 100 years later, accompanying the first publication of Eakins' drawing manual, edited by Dr. Kathleen Foster at the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The elegant pen and ink drawings include measurements, scales, geometric formulae and additional mechanics.

Thomas Eakins volunteered to teach an informal course in perspective at the Academy in 1877; in March 1880 he delivered his first official lecture on the topic. Over the next five years, he developed a standard series of annual lectures on special drawing techniques. At some point it occurred to him to publish these lectures as a small illustrated handbook; although drafts of this text are owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the accompanying illustrations are owned by the Academy, his manual was never published. It is not known why he abandoned the project, although the upset of his dismissal from the Academy and the gradual erosion of his student audience after 1886 must have been a factor.

The principal section of Eakins' manual covers linear perspective, mechanical and isometric drawing, reflections in water and sculptural relief, with a brief discussion of shadow. Many of the illustrations demonstrate Eakins' technical interest and his highly mathematical approach to drawing. He also distinguished between perspectival and other types of drawing.

This exhibition is organized in conjunction with the publication of Eakins' drawing manual by Dr. Kathleen Foster, Director of the Robert L. McNeill, Jr. Center for American Art and Curator of American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in celebration of the Pennsylvania Academy's 200th Anniversary.