[2] In 1876, Anshutz enrolled as a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the same year Thomas Eakins began teaching there.

[2] Art historian Randall C. Griffin has written of it: "One of the first American paintings to depict the bleakness of factory life, The Ironworkers' Noontime appears to be a clear indictment of industrialization.

He modeled for Eakins himself, along with colleagues such as J. Laurie Wallace and Covington Few Seiss, who would pose outdoors nude, often wrestling, swimming and boxing.

Eakins was forced to resign from the academy in an 1886 scandal that was sparked by his use of a fully nude male model in front of either an all-female or a mixed-male-and-female class.

[2][9] As a teacher, Anshutz, according to art historian Sanford Schwartz, "was known as much for his approachability as his sarcasm, which apparently wasn't of the withering variety.

"[10] The Anshutz family regularly vacationed in Holly Beach, New Jersey which served as a creative place for the painter.

He also photographed the natural environment, utilizing the images as studies for paintings, specifically Holly Beach and trips down the Delaware and Maurice rivers.

At Darby, Anshutz created his most abstract works, a series of bright oil landscape paintings that were never exhibited.

[1] In 1971 Robert and Joy McCarty, who lived in the home formerly owned by the Anshutz family in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, donated a portion of letters, glass negatives, and photographs to the Archives of American Art.