Salutat

Salutat
Artist	Thomas Eakins
Year	1898
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	126.4 cm × 101.0 cm ( 49 3⁄4 in ×  39 3⁄4 in)
Location	Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts

Salutat is an 1898 painting by Thomas Eakins (1844–1916). Based on a real-life boxing match that occurred in 1898, the work depicts a boxer waving to the crowd after the match. According to Eakins' biographer Lloyd Goodrich, Salutat is "one of Eakins' finest achievements in figure-painting." The painting's title is Latin for "He greets" or "He salutes."

Much as he had with his paintings of rowers in the 1870s, during the late 1890s Eakins turned his interest again to the male nude, this time depicting prizefighters. Eakins attended fights in 1898, and aided by sportswriters Clarence Cranmer and Henry Walter Schlichter, met with and hired fighters to pose for him.

The studio became a place to spar; according to Eakins's protégé the sculptor Samuel Murray, (who in 1899 made a bronze statue of Billy Smith) one of the fighters, Ellwood McCloskey, would "round up fellow pugilists who had promised to pose but didn't show up":

"Hey, you son of a bitch, haven't you got a date to pose for Mr. Eakins? Come on now, or I'll punch your goddamn head off."

"Turkey Point" Billy Smith, a featherweight who competed in over 100 bouts over the course of ten years and fought two featherweight champions, was the protagonist for Salutat as well as for Between Rounds.

Eakins made multiple studies of the subject. A pencil-on-paper study was purchased by Joseph Hirshhorn in 1965 and donated to his eponymous museum in 1966.

Eakins also completed an oil-on-canvas study, which he gave to art critic Sadakichi Hartmann after Hartmann praised Eakins in his 1901 book A History of American Art. (This was the first time Eakins had been recognized as being of historic importance.) This study is now in the possession of the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Salutat, Between Rounds (a portion of which was executed separately as Billy Smith) and Taking the Count are a series of three large boxing paintings done by Eakins. The former two depict events surrounding a boxing match that took place on April 22, 1898.Featherweight Tim Callahan fought featherweight Billy Smith in a match that was close until the final round, when Callahan gained the advantage and won the fight. However, for Salutat, Eakins chose to depict Smith as the winner. In the work, Smith raises his hand to salute the audience, in the style of a Gladiator. On the painting's original frame Eakins carved the words "DEXTRA VICTRICE CONCLAMANTES SALVTAT" (With the victorious right hand, he salutes those shouting [their approval]).

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