Clarence W. Cranmer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (gift from the artist)
Macbeth Galleries, New York (sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, March 24, 1938, lot 75, illustrated)
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. (acquired at the above sale; sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, February 16, 1950, lot 53, illustrated)
Oliver B. James, Arizona (acquired at the above sale; sold: Parke-Bernet Galleries, January 7, 1953, lot 87, illustrated)
Milch Galleries, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Bryant Langston
Milch Galleries, New York
Acquired from the above, 1958

Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore Museum of Art, Thomas Eakins: A Retrospective Exhibition of His Paintings, 1936-37, no. 30
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; Chicago, Illinois, The Art Institute of Chicago; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Thomas Eakins: A Retrospective, October 1961-March 1962, no. 71, illustrated
New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co., Seven Decades: 1895-1965: Crosscurrents in Modern Art, April-May 1966

The Arts, October 1929, Vol. XVI, p. 83, illustrated
Lloyd Goodrich, Thomas Eakins: His Life and Work, New York,
1933, no. 316, p. 189
Lloyd Goodrich, Thomas Eakins, Washington, D.C., 1982, illustrated p. 153

Very good condition, laid down on board; under UV: quarter size area of retouching in background above left hand, some scattered minor spots and dots of retouching to other areas of background. Recently cleaned and conserved.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In the late 1890s, fellow artist Samuel Murray and sportswriter Clarence Cranmer introduced Thomas Eakins to prizefighting. They took him to the Philadelphia Arena located at Broad and Cherry streets, across from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where Eakins had taught from 1876-1882. Murray went with Eakins to fights several times a week and recalled that "in the excitement of watching the bouts Eakins would go through the fighters' motions, twisting in his seat so that his neighbors protested" (Lloyd Goodrich, Thomas Eakins, 1982, p. 144). Eakins had long been interested in athletic subjects, painting rowing and hunting scenes in the early part of his career. In both these and his boxing pictures, Eakins was able to observe the male form in action, observing a balance of physical prowess and mental acumen, the nineteenth century masculine ideal. William Homer suggests that "At a stage in life when Eakins had stopped trying to impress anyone, he painted these [boxing] pictures to indulge his liking for popular sports, to express his interest in what he had seen so often and knew so well" (Thomas Eakins: His Life and Art, 1992, p. 238).

According to Lloyd Goodrich, "Prizefighting was not yet a diversion of high society or for women, and Eakins was one of the first American artists to paint it, anticipating the urban realists of a decade later. However, he never pictured actual fighting, the violent physical encounter that George Bellows was to depict so vividly; his three fight scenes showed moment of pause between action or of applause after action. As in his earlier rowing pictures, he may have come to believe that the representation of movement was not his forte" (Thomas Eakins, 1982, p.147).

Cranmer, the model for the present work, commented that Eakins saw over 300 rounds of fighting before he started his series on boxing, which include Between Rounds, Salutat and Taking the Count. Cranmer and another sportswriter, Henry ꦰWalter Schlichter, introduced several of the fighters to Eakins who promptly invited them to model for him at his Philadelphia studio, which he had temporarily converted into a workout gym. Eakins would recreate the fight, its poses and its movement in his studio; as a result, these paintings are filled with portraits of the combatants and their friends, on stage a🧸nd in the audience.

One of the many fighters Eakins became acquainted with was Billy Smith, a featherweight champion, with whom Eakins developed a lifelong friendship. Eakins used Smith as a model in Between Rounds, likely the second picture in this series, which depicts an actual fight between Smith and Tim Callahan on April 22, 1898. Familiar with Smith's cronies as well, Eakins🔯 includes manager Billy McCarney cooling Smith down with a towel, and retired fighter Ellwood McCloskey, leaning over Smith giving hi𒅌m advice. Eakins' old friend Clarence Cranmer, posed for the timekeeper.

Britt Steen Beedenbender notes "In Between Rounds, Eakins chooses to portray the moment in which there is a lapse in action, and the athlete's rationalization process takes precedence over the physical aspect of the sport. Although Eakins's paintings of athletes and sporting events are celebrations of masculinity and explore the beauty of the human form, there is an essential connection made between the corporeal and the cerebral. It is this emphasis on the contemplative and the internal that imbues Between Rounds with a monumental sense of dignity and reverence" (Thomas Eakins, 1993, p. 138).

As was common with Eakins' major compositions, he did several oil sketches and detailed studies of the figures before completing the final composition. For Between Rounds, h🌜e created the present portrait of Cranmer, as well as an oil portrait of Smith. These studies vary only slightly, if at all, from the final work; a testament to Eakins' skill in planning out his initial composition. In both the finished work and the study, the timekeeper diligently watches the time on his stopwatch, his right hand poised to ring the bell. The shine of his smooth leather shoes contrasts with the rougher texture of the table and chair, as well as the gritty hazy scene of the arena. The whole ritual is fixed in a moment of timelessness which passes under the tiꦫme keeper's hand.

When the present study came up for sale in 1953, Cranmer wrote to Milch galleries about the picture saying "My main reason for selling 'the Timer', was that I thought it belonged in a public gallery, as it was a fine example of the meticulous approach of the studies he first made, before he started the larꦇger picture, in whic♉h it was included."