Edward Hornor Coates

Who was Edward Hornor Coates?

Edward Hornor Coates was a Philadelphia businessman, financier, and patron of the arts and sciences. He served as Director of the Mechanics National Bank in 1873, was chairman of the Committee on Instruction at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1883 to 1890, and subsequently held the position of Academy president from 1890 to 1906. It was during his position as chairman that Mr. Coates commissioned The Swimming Hole from Thomas Eakins, only later to reject it. Painter John McLure Hamilton, in a piece about Mr. Coates from Hamilton's book Men I Have Painted, describes Mr. Coates' time at the Academy:

The reign of Mr. Coates at the Academy marked the period of its greatest prosperity. Rich endowments were made to the schools, a gallery of national portraiture was formed, and some of the best examples of Gilbert Stuart's work acquired. The annual exhibitions attained a brilliancy and éclat hitherto unknown... Mr. Coates wisely established the schools upon a conservative basis, building almost unconsciously the dykes high against the oncoming flow of insane novelties in art patterns...