Susan Hannah MacDowell Eakins is not as well known as her husband, Thomas Eakins, the great American realist who was asked to resign from his teaching job at the Pennsylvania Academy for encouraging his women students to draw from the completely nude male model. Although he regarded her as perhaps the best woman painter of the period, she subordinated her career to his and is only now getting the recognition she deserves.

Susan Hannah MacDowell, the fifth of eight children, grew up in Philadelphia. Her father, William MacDowell, an avowed liberal and freethinker, gave his children considerable freedom and encouragement. A respected engraver, he was in contact with many Philadelphia artists. MacDowell permitted his daughter to s...