Salutat

Thomas Eakins went to the fights in Philadelphia in 1898 and did something unusual for a painter of his standing. He hired the actual boxers to come pose in his studio. This is the featherweight Billy Smith, turning to salute the crowd with his right arm raised like a Roman gladiator. There is a small fiction in it. In the real bout Smith lost the last round and the fight, but Eakins gave him the winner's moment anyway. Trained in anatomy, he cared more about the exact set of a tired man's back and legs than about the drama of the punch. On the original frame he carved a Latin motto: with his victorious right hand, he salutes those cheering. The picture now hangs at a school in Andover, Massachusetts.