Which American realist painter created the 1885 painting 'The Swimming Hole'?

The American realist painter who created the 1885 painting The Swimming Hole was Thomas Eakins.

Eakins painted the work in 1884–85, and it is also known by titles including Swimming and The Old Swimming Hole. The oil on canvas shows six nude men bathing at Dove Lake near Philadelphia, including Eakins himself and several friends or students. For Eakins, the subject provided an opportunity to demonstrate his detailed knowledge of anatomy and the human figure.

The painting was commissioned in 1884 by Edward Hornor Coates, a Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts administrator, but Coates rejected it after its exhibition at the academy in 1885. It received little public attention during Eakins’s lifetime and was exhibited only a few more times.

The title The Swimming Hole became established after Eakins’s death. The Amon Carter Museum now calls the work Swimming, reflecting Eakins’s original title. The painting is often discussed as both a landmark of American realism and a notable treatment of male nudity.