Temporary quarters at 1429 Market Street were secured, and "The League" held its first session on February 22, 1886, with about 30 students present. ASL's first president, H. T. Cresson, was quoted that day in a Philadelphia newspaper: "[T]he young men who have formed the Art Students' League ... desire to study THE ENTIRE NUDE FIGURE,
not because it affords them pleasure to look at it, but because it is the only true way to obtain the necessary experience to represent a
draped figure ..." Subsequent students, some of whom may have been there that first night, included Cresson, Maurice Feely, Charles H. Fromuth, Douglass M. Hall, Lilian G. Hammitt,
Frank B. A. Linton,
Edwin George Lutz, Albert Oldach (ASL's third secretary),
Edmond T. Quinn (ASL's third curator), Franklin L. Schenck (ASL's second curator),
Amelia Van Buren, and Francis J. Ziegler (ASL's treasurer and second secretary).
Charles Grafly, made the move to ASL, but returned to PAFA the following year, perhaps to be eligible for its traveling scholarships to Europe, one of which he was awarded in 1888. Seventeen-year-old
Samuel Murray enrolled in ASL in Fall 1886, and eventually became Eakins's assistant and protégé. Eakins set forth the school's purpose: "The Art Students' League of Philadelphia is an association formed for the study of painting and sculpture. The basis of study is the nude human figure." Tuition was initially set at $25, but it was raised to $40 for the 8-month 1886-87 season, and finally to $50. The school never had more than forty-one students, and sometimes had as few as twelve. "No antique or drawing classes were included; only painting and modelling from life. Eakins gave criticisms two mornings, one afternoon and one evening a week, delivered lectures on anatomy, perspective, and other subjects, and superintended the dissecting. For all this he refused to accept any salary during the years of the school's existence; indeed, he assisted some of the poorer students financially, often under the guise of paying them to pose for him." ASL's first location was outgrown in only two months, and later demolished for
Frank Furness's expansion of
Broad Street Station. Its second location was at 1338 Chestnut Street (April 1886-May 1888), near Eakins's own studio at 1330. Its third location, 1816 Market Street (May 1888 – 1890), suffered a major fire, and its fourth and final location was at 12th & Filbert Street (1890–1893), above the Philadelphia Dental College. The school was able to sustain itself into the 1890s, but lost passion as the students who had been personally involved in the battles moved on. In her biography of her father, sculptor Charles Grafly, art critic Dorothy Grafly Drummond wrote: “[T]he little band was fighting for its own bread and butter, at best thinly sliced and even more thinly spread. With time, tradition proved more strong than the rebellion against it.” Eventually, the school could not attract enough paying students to cover expenses, and it was dissolved in early 1893.
Teaching elsewhere Eakins taught elsewhere, concurrent with the Art Students' League of Philadelphia, and subsequent to it:
Art Students' League of New York, 1885–1888;
Cooper Union in New York City, 1887–1897;
National Academy of Design in New York City, 1888–1895; Art Students' League of Washington, D.C., 1893. Dismissed by Philadelphia's
Drexel Institute in March 1895 for again using a fully nude male model before female students, Eakins gradually gave up teaching.
Bregler Collection Much of what is known of the Art Students' League of Philadelphia comes from
Charles Bregler, who was a student for the school's whole 7-year existence. He remained a lifelong friend to Eakins and his wife, and wrote two lengthy articles in the 1930s about Eakins's teaching methods. He preserved an enormous trove of Eakins papers, memorabilia, and minor works, although it was unavailable to scholars until the 1980s. The Bregler Collection was purchased by
The Pew Charitable Trusts in 1985, and donated to the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The Bregler Collection papers have changed the general perception of Eakins's departure from PAFA. It is now seen as less of a case of Victorian authority (PAFA's Board) persecuting a heroic iconoclast (Eakins), and more as a conspiracy by Eakins's colleagues and personal enemies to engineer his ouster from PAFA and deliberately sabotage his reputation. ==Eakins portraits of Art Students' League students==