Typical of many of Eakins's works, the painting shows a skillful man deeply engaged in his work. Painstaking detail of the hands of the writing master is important in this work. Critics believe such attention to detail is intended to show the character of the person being represented, in this case reflecting the care for craftsmanship that Eakins observed in his father.
At the age of thirteen, Eakins entered Central High School of Philadelphia, which was established twenty years earlier as Pennsylvania's first public high school and provided an advanced curriculum with an emphasis on science. Combining his knowledge of science with his enthusiasm for art, Eakins enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, America's oldest art academy, after he graduated from high school. He studied there from 1862 to 1866 while the Civil War (1861–65) was being fought. He had paid a bounty to avoid the Civil War draft, part of a law that allowed someone to, in essence, hire a substitute.
At the Academy, Eakins honed his drawing skills. Fascinated with anatomy, especially the construction of bones and muscles, Eakins took courses at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.
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