s and ends reciprocally adapted to each other" (quoted in Canaday 312). Athletes were, therefore, one of his favorite subjects and, in addition to the portrait of Schmitt he painted and drew several compositions involving rowers. This sport had recently become popular in America and Eakins himself enjoyed rowing. In the painting of Schmitt Eakins was celebrating a particular victory of one of the champions of the sport. His original title for the painting was The Champion Single Sculls, and this was what it was called the one time it was exhibited during Eakins life. He gave the painting to Schmitt and Schmitt had it exhibited at the Union League art show in Philadelphia. After Schmitt's death his wife gave the painting back to Eakins' widow in 1930. The Metropolitan Museum acquired it in 1934.
Though he painted it some time later, Eakins was celebrating a particular victory in October 1870. Eakins had seen the race and in the painting her "conveyed with pictorial details the main facts of this championship race," the fall season, the precise location on the Schuykill River, and the late-afternoon sunlight (Johns 38). In addition to celebrating the athlete, however, Eakins' rowing pictures also emphasize "the lonely discipline of doing something well." (Johns 42). Eakins knew something about this s
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