At
the time of Frank Duveneck's birth in 1848, American art had not yet
developed a successful voice of its own. Only a handful of her
painters had managed to achieve recognition on the worldwide stage
and fewer still were significantly esteemed on America's own shores. There
were common itinerant portraitists, sign painters, building
decorators, and those who drew and painted the flora, fauna and
scenery being discovered as the country moved west, but it
wasn't until 1850, two years after Frank Duveneck's birth, that America's
first art movement came into existence: the Hudson River School. It was distinguished by
its idealized, tightly-rendered, large and luminous landscapes and
seascapes.
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| Frederic Edwin Church . West Rock, New Haven 1849 |
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| Eglise Saint Roumuald, Montreal, Canada |
Realism, an art movement birthed in France, had just been embraced by the director and leading teachers of Munich's Royal Academy of Fine Arts (in which Frank had enrolled), and also by the city's leading artist, Wilhelm Leibl. The founder of Realism, French artist Gustave Courbet, had come to Munich to demonstrate his style of art and had left not only Leibl but many other artists in the city completely inspired. Breaking from the approved subject matter of that time - mythological and great historical events populated by noble, idealized people - Courbet instead wished to paint “everyday subjects and situations in contemporary settings, depicting individuals of all social classes in a similar manner.” In his “Realist Manifesto” he wrote: “To know in order to be able to create, that was my idea. To be in a position to translate the customs, the ideas, the appearance of my epoch, according to my own estimation; to be not only a painter, but a man as well; in short, to create living art - this is my goal.” His work provoked the art establishment. His large depictions of a common man’s funeral in “Burial at Ornans” and that of simple laborers in “Stone-Breakers” were considered scandalous – and rejected by the jury of the Universal Exposition of 1844.
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| Courbet: “Burial At Ornans,” 10.3' x 21.7' |
As
we consider Realism as Courbet defined it, we also must not
think that it referred to a precise and careful depiction of visual
appearances – which was instead at that time a characteristic of
academic painting. While things were depicted realistically, the
style of brushwork and tightness of depiction were not defining
traits of the movement. This was especially true in Munich, where the
artists gave it their own very distinctive twist, one that
had evolved quickly after two exhibitions in the city. One exhibition
had exposed the artists to works from the old masters – such as
Rubens, Rembrandt, Velazquez and Hals; the other to paintings of
current, cutting-edge artists like Courbet. (In fact his previously
rejected “Stone Cutters” was the hit of the latter exhibit.) The
leading artists in Munich started depicting common people and things with loose brushwork (like Hals) on
backgrounds of dark brown (as in the masters' works), the style which
is recognized today as the Munich School of painting.
They
also began to train the academy’s students along these new paths -
including an enthusiastic Frank Duveneck. His family had sent him to
Munich to become a skillful church decorator, but he quickly lost
interest in that profession once he found this style which suited his talent and
temperament. He excelled, completing courses rapidly while winning
top medals, a place in the best classes, studio space and expenses
for models, and even an offer from Germany’s eminent portraitist,
Franz von Lenbach, to become his assistant.
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| Wilhelm Leibl, Peasant Boy |
By the time Frank returned to the States, he had changed.
Although he did go to work for a church decorating company - as his
parents had planned, his first love now was fine art. He found ways
to continue it. He associated with other fine artists in the area. He
shared a studio with a young sculptor, Frank Dengler, who had studied
with him in Munich. He became good friends with Dusseldorf-trained
depicter of Native Americans, Henry Farny. He also volunteered to
teach a night class in life drawing at the Mechanics Institute of
Cincinnati. His students there were a fine group of young men who
became esteemed artists in their own right, among whom were John
Twachtman, Kenyan Cox, and Frederic Blum. He painted portrait
commissions too until 1875 when he was invited by esteemed Boston
artist William Morris Hunt to show five of his paintings at the
Boston Art Club.
His
work created a sensation, and he was acclaimed by critics and public
alike. One art critic, Henry James, wrote:
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| Frank Duveneck, Whistling Boy |
"The discovery of an unsuspected man of genius is always an interesting event and nowhere perhaps could such an event excite a higher relish than in the aesthetic city of Boston. Many people just now in the New England capital are talking of Mr. Frank Duveneck and incidentally of Velazquez. Mr. Duveneck is a painter of the rigidly natural school. Unadorned reality is as yet his exclusive theme...the handling is of the broadest and freest, the color ranges through only two or three variations of black or gray, but the relief, the vigor, the frankness, the comprehensive simplicity are most striking...Mr. Duveneck on the exhibition of these works was, we believe, invited to come to Boston where a dozen immediate orders for portraits were assured him. We learn, with pleasure, that it is proposed to bring these portraits to New York and place them temporarily on exhibition. We hope for the sake of every one concerned, that they will encounter perfect, adequate appreciation, but that it will be remembered that Mr. Duveneck is very young, and that if we praise him too lavishly now, we shall have nothing left to say about him twenty years hence."
The
people loved his style which was radically different from that
of the Hudson River School and also different from the style that
Dusseldorf-trained American artist Emanuel Leutze used as in
“Washington Crossing the Delaware.” Frank's paintings, which
included his famous (even to this day) depiction of a young rascal
smoking a cigar, “Whistling Boy,” were bold, loosely painted
portraits with dark backgrounds a la Munich School Realism. All
of his work at the exhibit sold at prices beyond his expectations,
and his reputation soared.
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| Frank Duveneck, The Turkish Page |
At
that point he could easily have stayed in the States and had a
successful career, but he returned to Europe to continue his artistic
journey. He and fellow Royal Academy student William Merritt Chase
shared a studio – and subject matter on occasion - for some time in
Germany and in Italy. Again there were outstanding reviews when
several years later they showed their work in the prestigious 1878
National Academy of Design's exhibit in New York. Duveneck’s
painting “The Turkish Page” was a sensation. People admired “his
mastery of all technical difficulties, the justness of his tonal
values and wet-into-wet straightforward painting.”
The work now hangs in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. “Some
critics announced that the artist's offhand painterly methods
heralded a rejuvenation of American art. Another observed that 'these
brilliant paintings and the new attitudes these works implied
profoundly shook the traditional aesthetic assumptions of our native
school. The more far-sighted critics hailed the exhibition as the
dawning of a new era for American art.”
Duveneck
continued his explorations mastering new art forms and
techniques. While he continued to paint portraits in the Realist
vein, he also ventured outdoors to paint - and he didn't go alone. He
now had his own group of students, called the Duveneck Boys. They
called him “The Professor,” and he taught these thirty young men
as they sketched and painted the countryside around Polling, Germany.
Both he and they learned to see new colors and light in ways that
working in a studio could never teach them. It was no coincidence
that some of the greatest artists in America at that time came from
his students: John White Alexander, Louis Ritter, Joseph DeCamp, Otto
Bacher, Theodore Wendel, Harper Pennington, Julian Story and Julius
Rolshoven. The dark brown “soup” of Munich disappeared from
Frank's outdoor work.
His plein air paintings, such as “Beechwood
at Polling, 1878,” were full of light as well as his typically
expressive application of pigment. He continued plein air work
throughout his life - in Germany, Italy, and after his permanent move
back to the States, in Gloucester, Massachusetts in particular. “He
crowned his late career with an achievement that has not received
enough critical attention. His series of Gloucester, Massachusetts
seascapes must be counted among his most personal and revealing
works...about one hundred in all. The best of these seacoast scenes
revealed that his unerring eye and daring hand remained intact, even
though weakened. They show deep discernment of physical nature and
tight composition. The best are mysteriously evocative, appealing as
much to the mind as to the eye."
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| Frank Duveneck Landscape Study |
Duveneck
was an extraordinarily gifted man – someone who enjoyed exploring
different facets of art with the ability to master them very quickly.
In the 1880s he put his hand to etching. He produced a remarkable
series of 37 plates in Venice so beautifully done that James McNeill
Whistler’s own gallery in London thought that Whistler had done
them under a pseudonym.
In his book Etchers
and Etching,
Joseph Pennell comments on Duveneck's mastery of the medium: “No
one has approached him in beauty and meaning of line...every line is
vital, the point of view is personal and the arrangement
individual...they are masterpieces.”
This author, who was Chairman of the International Jury of Awards
for Engraving at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition in 1915, proposed a
special gold medal for Duveneck for these etchings which was
enthusiastically agreed upon and presented by an international jury
comprised of about 30 outstanding painters and sculptors from both
the States and Europe.
Frank
Duveneck was also acclaimed for his sculpture – particularly his
wife's funereal effigy - which is remarkable since it was the first
that he had done. Elizabeth Boott Duveneck had been one of his
admirers ever since she saw his work in the 1875 Boston Art Club
show. She and her father had purchased one of Frank's paintings, and
she pursued studies with him both in Munich and then in Florence,
Italy. They were eventually married after a rocky six-year courtship
and shared a studio and models for a time until their son was born. A
year later in 1888, while they were both in Paris studying art and
preparing for the annual Salon, Lizzie contracted pneumonia and died.
Their son went to live with Lizzie's relatives in Boston, an
arrangement that regularly brought Frank there for lengthy visits,
while he himself returned to Covington to his family’s home. There he
collaborated with Cincinnati sculptor Clement Barnhorn to create a
bronze memorial effigy for his wife’s grave in Italy. He received
multiple commissions from American museums for its replication: one
in Carrera marble to place in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
(which also received honorable mention in the 1895 Paris Salon); four
others for Chicago, Indianapolis, Lincoln and San Francisco; and in
1917, at the urging from none other than Daniel French, the famous
American sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial, one for a bronze version
gilded with gold leaf for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The
original plaster cast is still on display in Cincinnati, along with
the marble and gilt versions in Boston and New York.
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| Ponte Rialto by Frank Duveneck, 1883 |
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| Elizabeth Boott Duveneck Effigy (detail) white Carrera marble at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Duveneck
also painted notable murals for the prayer chapel at St. Mary’s
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky (on the
National Registry). It was a five-year project, resulting in three
large panels, each ten by twenty-four feet, dedicated to his mother
who had hoped for him to have a career as a church decorator. They
involved many studies and trips to Europe that not only resulted in
the fine finished pieces but several additional paintings.
Aside
from introducing Realism to the American art scene and being
extremely talented, Duveneck had another outstanding gift that would
help advance art in America – that of teaching. At this time our
country desperately needed well-trained teachers to help develop the
abilities of students right here in the States. This was a crucial
role in our country's artistic development, and these years saw
European-trained American artists beginning art schools that helped
change the need to go abroad for a good education. Duveneck turned
down offers to teach in New York at the Art Students' League and in
Chicago at the Art Institute (where they had told him to name his
salary) to reach out in his own area of the country.
Josephine
Duveneck writes:
"Many critics and art historians...have failed to take into account the outstanding qualities of Duveneck as a teacher, and the difficulty he had in extricating himself from the demands made by the growing number of art students in the United States. From the early days in Munich, when the “Boys” left the Academy to study with him, up to the very last year of his life, he was sought by hundreds of students. Because of his great liking for young people, he responded with warmth and enthusiasm, sharing his skill and experience with complete generosity. In the successes of the young men and women who worked under him, he seems to have found as much, perhaps even more, satisfaction as in his own triumphs...In Cincinnati, Nicholas Longworth gave a substantial sum for the establishment of an art academy. In 1890 Duveneck joined the faculty of Cincinnati's Art Academy and continued to teach there for almost twenty years until his death."
His
outstanding contribution as a teacher was recognized in 1917 when he
was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Cincinnati.
The finest tribute, however, was at a memorial meeting after his
death held at the Art Museum by his students. The following
resolution was adopted:
"Frank
Duveneck, master in sculpture, in etching, and supremely master with
the brush, has left in his words a legacy of unlimited value. We the
students of the Duveneck Class, who worked under him in the early
days in Europe, in Boston, or here in Cincinnati, are possessed of a
treasure even richer, the inspiration of his character, of his
vigorous and tender personality, of the high ideals of art and of
life he implanted.
Great teacher, most kindly and just of critics, dear friend, he has been to us like a father to his children. Each of us has felt his protecting encouragement, his tender anxiety that we attain to the best within our powers. His careful instruction, his kindly interest were freely given to his students whether they clung far down on the ladder of the struggle to learn or had reached the upper rounds. He gave his best without stint. No appeal for help was unanswered or misunderstood. No effort was too great for him to make on our behalf. All he demanded of us was honesty of endeavor and sincerity of purpose. His criticism, whether sought or unsought, was just. Invariably constructive, it was a spur to greater effort. Frank Duveneck stood for the highest ideals. He gave to those who were near him sympathy and loyalty.
Be It Therefore Resolved: That we, his students, are united by the privilege of association with the master, the great teacher of his day. That we shall cherish the nobility of his ideals, striving not only to live up to the best in ourselves as he would have us do, but to keep alive and pass on to those with whom we may be associated, the teachings and ideals of one who has been an inspiration not only in art, but in life itself."
Duveneck
was not only respected and loved by his students, but had influence
in a number of art organizations. From the time of his return to the
States in 1888, he received invitations to positions of honor. He
became the first president of the Society of Western Artists (1896),
and president of the Cincinnati Art Club (1896-98). He also sat on
the juries of prestigious art competitions, both nationally and
internationally such as that for the Paris Exhibition (1899), which
placed him alongside of first-rate American artists Winslow Homer,
Edwin Blashfield, Hugh Bolton Jones, John LaFarge, H. Siddons
Mowbray, Robert Vonnoh, J. Alden Weir, Cecilia Beaux and William
Merritt Chase. When he went to spend time with his son in
Massachusetts on long holidays and during the summers he became “a
pivotal figure of the Cape Ann art community.”
Students and artist friends, such as Theodore Wendel, Joseph DeCamp,
John W. Alexander, John Twachtman, and Herman and Bessie Wessel from
Boston and Cincinnati came with him to paint at Gloucester en plein
air, and he has work hanging in the Cape Ann Museum.
Duveneck
also had a significant influence on the Cincinnati Art Museum. His
association with its director, Thomas Joseph Gest, was quite
directive in the museum's development. Thomas esteemed Duveneck
highly and often consulted with him about the purchase of works of
art for the institution. Elizabeth Cary, writing in The
New York Times,
asserted, “The spirit of Duveneck for many years has informed the
Museum and made it that vital stimulating extraordinarily moving
place that it is.” In a time when Americans were prone to favor European artists,
the Cincinnati Art Museum was the first American art museum to patronize American
art, a practice that Frank encouraged. He also donated his personal
collection of approximately 150 paintings to the museum.
When
one asks where he was pegged in the national and international world
of art in his time, the answer comes in the form of a special
recognition awarded him at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International
Exposition. A special gold medal was decided upon by a jury of 30
artists not only from the States but from abroad. A letter from the
foreign members of the jury (from Holland, Japan, Cuba, Italy,
Portugal, China, Argentina, Sweden and Norway) said: “'Whereas the
comprehensive retrospective collection of Mr. Frank Duveneck's work
in oils, etching and sculpture brought together here has
unquestionably proven to be the real surprise of the whole American
Section in the Palace of Fine Arts, and, whereas, these works have
astonished and delighted all those hitherto unacquainted with his
life work, while confirming the opinion of those few who have long
held him in the highest esteem both as an artist and as a man, we the
foreign jurors on the International Jury of Award, feel that some
special recognition of his distinguished contribution to American art
should be awarded Mr. Duveneck, and we herewith recommend a Special
Medal of Honor be struck in his honor and awarded him.” Norbert Hermann’s
book on Duveneck, written 3 years after the Panama-Pacific
Exposition, continued that praise, comparing his skills to those of
the old masters.
The
art world and his city were and still are grateful:
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| Statue of Frank Duveneck holding a plaque with his wife's picture on it in Covington, Kentucky |
- In 1929, ten years after his death, a commemorative bronze plaque was affixed to his house on Greenup Street in Covington (and is still there) by the Covington Art Club, the Tuesday Club and the Women’s Club which read, “Here lived Frank Duveneck, a great artist, 1848-1919.
- In 2003 the entry room of the Cincinnati Wing at the Cincinnati Art Museum was dedicated to showing his work and life story.
- In 2006 the exterior of Duveneck’s home was renovated through a grant from the Kentucky Heritage Council, and applications for grants for an interior renovation have been made to bring it back to its appearance during Duveneck’s residence.
- His work and his teaching are still used to instruct art students.
- In 2006 a life-size statue of Frank Duveneck holding a picture of his wife, Elizabeth Boott, was erected in his honor in Covington, Kentucky.
- The members of the Cincinnati Art Club, an organization that included Duveneck as a founding member and president, make an annual visit to his nearby grave in the Mother of God Cemetery.
- This year 2015 is the hundredth anniversary of the Panama-Pacific Exhibition. In recognition of Duveneck's gold medal, the Cincinnati Art Museum is loaning his “Whistling Boy” to the year-long celebration.
- In 2019 on the 100th anniversary of his death, the Cincinnati Art Museum has plans to celebrate his work and life.
* written by Linda Crank seeking recognition from the National Registry - and happily obtaining it - for the Duveneck House in Covington, Kentucky. Quotes here were taken from the following sources:
Hermann, Norbert, Frank Duveneck
Hermann, Norbert, Frank Duveneck
Cape Ann
Museum website:
http://www.capeannmuseum.org/collections/artists/frank-duveneck/
Cary,
Elisabeth Luther, Dec. 24, 1922 “A Glimpse of Art in Cincinnati”
New
York Times
Whistler,
James Abbott McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Pennell,
Joseph, Etchers
and Etching
Duveneck,
Josephine, Frank
Duveneck: Painter, Teacher
Neuhaus, Robert, Unsuspected
Genius: The Art and Life of Frank Duveneck
Boime,
Albert, Art
in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848-1871
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