Armed with French academic training, knowledge of Old Master painting, and keen practical interest in photography, Thomas Eakins created some of the most compelling examples of realism in the history of American art. A gifted but controversial teacher, Eakins broke with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) after being accused of moral impropriety for removing the loincloth from a male model in a class of female students. The short-lived Art Students' League of Philadelphia (1886-1893), focused on the study of the figure, was founded in response to Eakins' departure from PAFA. There, Eakins met sculptor Samuel Murray and art teacher Jane Dean Kershaw, who eventually married and became Eakins’ lifelong friends. Kershaw's intimate and expressive portrait, characterized by a dark Rembrandt-esque palette, demonstrates Eakins' careful observation of her thoughtful state.