![Thomas Eakins - Sailing [c.1875]](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5598/14942452653_9e431089b7_o.jpg)
This large painterly study was worked with a palette knife and is the artist's second attempt at a composition involving a local boat called a ducker, which was used on the Delaware River just south of the city. Distinctive to the region, duckers were ideal boats for hunting birds because they were nimble and the sail could be removed when hunting. Here, two men sail to their hunting grounds, one of them steering and looking below the sail while the other gazes out at us.
[Philadelphia Museum of Art - Oil on canvas, 81 x 117.5 cm]