This photograph was ascribed to Thomas Eakins when it was printed in the Small, Maynard edition of Leaves (1898), but it is very similar to two other photographs, the second of which is clearly ascribed to Murray.
In May of 1891, Murray accompanied the New York sculptor and friend of Eakins, William O'Donovan, to Whitman's home and photographed Whitman as an aid to O'Donovan's sculpting the poet: "they took hell's times in all sorts of posishes," Whitman groused.
At this point, Whitman had a wolf-skin draped across the back of his rocker in the first-floor parlor of his home, where this was taken.
There is a more well known profile photo from this session which Walt really liked: www.flickr.com/photos/marcelonoah/3337595039/
The most famous portrait of the man is this one: www.flickr.com/photos/13964815@N00/218059752/
I'm partial to this one myself. It's one of the last photos of the man and the composition is fantastic with the chiaroscuro lighting as if Heaven itself was waiting through that window. I normally don't like portraits where the eyes are too distant. While he's still clearly portrayed as a man of this world -- his fingers seem to grow out of the arms of the chair like roots of a great old oak -- he has more than an eye into the next world.
Type: Glass plate negative (4 x 5 in.)
Credit: Hirshhorn Musuem and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution
ID: 127
Endless Forms Most Beautiful, ShapeTwo, Lucy Skydog, and joanpetrus added this photo to their favorites.
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