NORTHERN LIBERTIES A painter can imitate life through his art, but he can also imitate death. Thomas Eakins creates a masterpiece as anatomy labs proliferate, whores and winos vanish, antisepsis appears in hospitals, and the world visits Philadelphia for its 1876 exposition. Eakins' oil painting, The Gross Clinic, and the city's 19th century red light district, Northern Liberties, evoke a literary vision of beauty, murder, and redemption, as Glenn Vanstrum blends impasto pigment, medicine, and passion into story.