Eakins willed his Mount Vernon Street townhouse to the city of Philadelphia to be used for public art purposes, but it sat abandoned until the Mural Arts Program set up offices there six years ago. Unfortunately, there is nothing left to see of the artist’s home or studio except the facade, but you can stop by to reserve a trolley tour of the city’s murals. Established in 1984 to “redirect the creative impulses” of the city’s graffiti artists, MAP has produced more than 2,700 murals, paying tribute to local legends such as Patti LaBelle, Wilt Chamberlain and William Penn.

It’s tempting to wonder what he would make of the murals—would he see them as successors of the grand-scale portraits and slice-of-life realism he practiced? “If America is to produce great painters and if young art students wish to assume a place in the history of the art of their country, their first desire should be to remain in America to peer deeper into the heart of their country,” he told a reporter in 1914. “Americans must branch out into their own fields. … Only by doing this will they create a great and distinctly American art.”

---

Cathleen McCarthy has written about Philadelphia’s art scene for publications such as The Washington Post and Departures.

ITINERARY

---

►David David Gallery
260 S. 18th St.
215.735.2922
Carries works by Eakins’ contemporaries, such as Renoir and Childe Hassam.

►Gallery 339
339 S. 21st St.
215.731.1530
www.gallery339.com

►Locks Gallery
600 Washington Square South
215.629.1000
www.locksgallery.com

►Mural Arts Program
1729 Mount Vernon St.
215.685.0750
www.muralarts.org/tours

►Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
118 North Broad St.
215.972.7600
www.pafa.org

►Philadelphia Museum of Art
Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. at 26th St.
215.763.8100
www.philamuseum.org

►Rittenhouse 1715 (hotel)
1715 Rittenhouse Square St.
215.546.6500
www.rittenhouse1715.com

►Schmidt Dean Gallery
1710 Sansom St.
215.569.9433
www.schmidtdean.com

►Schwarz Gallery
1806 Chestnut St.
215.563.4887
www.schwarzgallery.com
Carries works by Eakins as well as contemporaries such as wife Susan MacDowell Eakins, Childe Hassam, William Merritt Chase, Cecilia Beaux, Mary Cassatt and Thomas Anshutz.

►Seraphin Gallery
1108 Pine St.
215.923.7000
www.seraphingallery.com
On Antique Row, carries works by Sidney Goodman who is, like Eakins, a lifetime Philadelphian, PAFA instructor and famous for painting local characters.

►Snyderman-Works Galleries
303 Cherry St.
215.238.9576
www.snyderman-works.com

►The Union League
140 S. Broad St.
215.563.6500
www.unionleague.org

►Water Works Restaurant and Lounge
640 Water Works Dr.
215.236.9000
www.thewaterworksrestaurant.com

►Woodmere Art Museum
9201 Germantown Ave.
215.247.0476
www.woodmereartmuseum.org