More than fifty years ago, a treasury of studio materialincluding oil sketches, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and manuscripts - was rescued from the empty house of Thomas Eakins by a devoted student, Charles Bregler. Deemed worthless then, the "rubbish" that Bregler reverently saved has only recently become recognized as an important source of information about the life and working habits of one of America's greatest artists.

This book is both a catalogue of the Bregler collection and a reassessment of Eakins' career as read through the newly discovered materials.

Foster analyzes Eakins' habits as a draftsman, unlocking his famous perspective drawings to reveal his idiosyncratic practices. She examines his innovations as a watercolorist and photographer and describes his distinctive academic procedures in oil paint and clay.

Foster then investigates a series of Eakins' best know projects, from the early sporting paintings to the late portraits, to explain the sequence of his method, the development of his imagery, and the meaning that emerges from the interaction of subject and technique.