American Art Collaborative

In Greek mythology, the Three Fates were goddesses who determined the course of human lives, represented by lengths of thread. Clotho spun the thread of life, Lachesis determined its length, and Atropos cut the cord. One of several versions of the subject begun by Susan MacDowell Eakins around 1881, this sketch may have originally been intended as the design for a theatrical backdrop at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. It appears to have been cut down from a larger canvas that contained a nude sketch of a woman, possibly by Thomas Eakins. Susan MacDowell was already an accomplished exhibiting photographer when she began studying with Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1880. She soon became one of his closest students and ultimately his wife in 1884. After her marriage, Eakins devoted more time to defending her often-controversial husband than her artistic career, ultimately crafting his legacy through gifts of art and selective collaboration with early biographers. In recent years, Susan Eakins' own works have received increasing scholarly attention.