Frank Duveneck

QJarnell Uttinetaitg ffiihranj

3tljaca, SJem flarfe

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

HENRY W. SAGE

1891

ND 237.D98H45 UniVerSl,y Ubrary
Frank Duveneck,

3 1924 008 754 354

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924008754354

FRANK DUVENECK

FRANK DUVENECK

From the Portrait by Joseph DeCamp

FRANK DUVENECK

BY
NORBERT HEERMANN

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

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BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

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COPYRIGHT, I918, BY NORBERT HEERMANN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published October igiS

PREFACE

In a well-known dictionary of American artists
in which considerable space is devoted to al-
most all of our artists, we find under Frank
Duveneck's name just a small paragraph, and
under that the editor's remark : " No answer to
circular." This is characteristic of Duveneck.
Since it was not a very easy matter to get the
chronology of the works and most interesting
facts in connection with them correctly, I am
especially indebted to those who have aided me
in the preparation of this little work, to Mrs.
William B. Pratt, Mr. Clement Barnhorn, and
Mr. Oliver Dennett Grover. For permission to
make use of photographs of their paintings by
Duveneck I am grateful to the Cincinnati Mu-
seum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Chi-

vi PREFACE

cago Art Institute, the Queen City Club of
Cincinnati, and the Boston Tavern Club, and
to Mrs. Henry C. Angell and Mr. M. A.
DeWolfe Howe, of Boston.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Frank Duveneck Frontispiece

From the Portrait by Joseph DeCamp, owned by the Cin-
cinnati Museum

Joseph DeCamp's portrait of Duveneck strongly indicates his physical
and mental make-up and harmonizes very well with Mrs. Pennell's de-
scription (page 8/). The expression of his eyes and hands in the canvas,
suggesting a quietude that to the outsider might mean almost anything,
yet to those that know him conveys the feeling of latent power and re-
minds one that these blue eyes of his are used to look at things firmly
and to take from them a clear-cut summary of what is there. The por-
trait is a double tribute of DeCamp to his teacher. It was a work of
love, time having been taken from commissions to complete it for a gift
to Cincinnati, where DeCamp was born and received his early art train-
ing. It also carries the sign of the latter's training under Duveneck. A
fine piece of characterization ; the person summed it up who said, " Cut
the hand on the left out and show it to anybody that knows Duveneck
and he will tell you whose hand it is."

The Old Schoolmaster 4

Owned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, now hung
in the house of its former owner, Mrs. Henry C. Angell,
Boston

Whistling Boy 8

Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

Woman with a Fan 12

Owned by Mr. M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Boston

Young Man with Ruff 16

Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

Portrait of Professor Ludwig Loefftz .... 20
Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

viii FRANK DUVENECK

Unfinished Portrait Study 24

Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

Portrait of Mr. William Adams .28

Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

Turkish Page 32

Owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

Woman with Forget-Me-Nots 36

Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

Sketch of a Turk 40

Owned by the Tavern Club, Boston

Portrait of J. Frank Currier 44

Owned by the Art Institute, Chicago

Red-Haired Man with Ruff 48

Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

The Cobbler's Apprentice 52

Owned by Mr. Charles P. Taft

Portrait of John W. Alexander 56

Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

Well and Water-Tank, Italian Villa .... 60
Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

Old Town Brook, Polling, Bavaria 60

Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

Florentine Flower Girl 64

Owned by the Cincinnati Museum

Siesta 68

Owned by the Queen City Club, Cincinnati

Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice. — Etching ... 72

FRANK DUVENECK ix

The Rialto, Venice. — Etching 76

Memorial to Elizabeth Boott Duveneck. — Sculpture. 80
Bronze in the " Allori " Cemetery, Florence

Facsimile of the Letter adopted first by the Foreign
^ Members of the Jury for the Panama-Pacific In-
ternational Exposition and later endorsed by the
Entire American Jury 82

FRANK DUVENECK

"After all's said, Frank Duveneck is the
greatest talent of the brush of this generation."
These are the words which John Singer Sar-
gent spoke at a dinner given in London in the
early nineties, in a discussion of the merits of
such eminent men as Carolus Duran and others.
This judgment, deliberately spoken by a man
whom artists and laymen alike have come to
regard as the most technically brilliant of
painters, would not now, any more than it did
then, arouse contradiction in a company of
artists. Yet to the general public it would come
with a shock of surprise. This is in part be-
cause Duveneck's work is not accessible to the
general public. Another reason lies in the fact
that the greatness of Duveneck's art is best un-
derstood by the student of painting. His style,

2 FRANK DUVENECK

simple and direct, is " sans phrase," — without
technical tricks for effect, without persuasive
story subjects, without even so much self-con-
sciousness as is implied in the word "senti-
ment." Of literary association there is none,
of doctrine or dogma there is none. The world
of this painter is not history, not imagination,
not psychological analysis, not ethics; those
fields which our public loves to explore. His
compelling interest is in the normal aspect of
man and nature, the subjects he chooses are
everyday types ; he conceives them in an un-
pretentious spirit, but transmits them as en-
dowed with quiet power. There is in his work
a certain finality of grasp with a dignity, a calm,
which to the connoisseur is akin to the serenity
of the Greek, while to the multitude it may ap-
pear actually commonplace.

That a man of this type should later have
been almost lost sight of, except by his intimate
circle of artist friends, is not altogether sur-
prising in this country and at a time like the

THE OLD SCHOOLMASTER
187 1

This portrait, with the keen grasp of the expressive features of this
stern, old-fashioned figure, was painted in Duveneck's second year in
Munich — an astonishing achievement.

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THE OLD SCHOOLMASTER
1871

FRANK DUVENECK 5

present, when change swiftly follows change
and is greeted with a clamor that distracts at-
tention from earlier achievement.

We owe it to the Duveneck Gallery at the
Panama Pacific International Exposition that
the full power of this personality has been once
more thrown into full relief; and the action
of the jury in awarding him a special medal,
the highest in its power to bestow, is a timely
reminder of the truly classic standard of his
work and of its importance in the development
of our national school.

To appreciate the effect of his painting, when
it was first exhibited over forty years ago, we
must remember the lack of national character
in the American art of that day. The country
was flooded with foreign paintings which in-
spired our painters to either the sentimental
story picture of Diisseldorf lineage, or the dry
reflection of other lifeless works. Only here
and there the flicker of independent thought

6 FRANK DUVENECK

appeared. Inness, the father of the naturalistic
movement in American landscape, who had
just returned from Italy, was beginning to feel
his way towards the splendor of his later work.
Homer Martin was in more or less an experi-
mental stage, and so was Alexander H. Wyant.
John La Farge's poetic genius was getting
ready to express itself with full mastery for the
first time in his mural decoration in Trinity
Church, Boston (1876), and George Fuller's no-
ble art was yet hidden from the public, his inti-
mate friends alone knowing that he painted in
the intervals of his farm work at Deerfield, Mass-
achusetts. William Morris Hunt was actually
the only widely recognized artistic personage
at the time. He had opened a studio in Boston
in 1862. It proved successful, and his lectures
on art, notably the art of his great inspiration
Millet, also of Delacroix and Daumier, pre-
pared in that city the most open-minded audi-
ence which existed in the country.
Before this audience, in 1875, came Frank

WHISTLING BOY
1872

The young Du veneck's complete realization of technique, clearness
of vision, and powerful aim for what is vital in portraiture. Every-
thing here fairly palpitates with life.

WHISTLING BOY
1872

FRANK DUVENECK 9

Duveneck with his little one-man show of five
canvases, a young fellow of twenty-seven
years with but a three years' schooling in
Munich behind him. The canvases he showed
were "The Woman with a Fan," "The Old
Schoolmaster," " Portrait of William Adams,"
"Portrait of Professor Loefftz," and the
" Whistling Boy." Here at last was a person-
ality that spoke a definite, a beautifully and
powerfully definite language. Duveneck's ex-
hibition proved an immediate success. The
pictures were acclaimed by Hunt and many
others and by the whole press. The opening
of a new era in American art was proclaimed.
In 1877, the National Academy Exhibition in
New York, including a group of canvases by
the American painters from the Munich School,
became a fresh landmark, and with the found-
ing in the following year of " The Society of
American Artists " and their subsequent exhi-
bition at the Kurtz Gallery in New York in
1878, the new era in American Art was fairly

io FRANK DUVENECK

launched. The younger men among the Amer-
ican painters had been brought into contact
with a vital influence from outside and had
been taught to respect their own reaction to
it. As we have seen, this first impulse came
by way of Munich; later Paris became the
art school of the world. All this now is too
well known to be dwelt upon.

In speaking of Duveneck I would emphasize
the powerful effect of his own work at the out-
set of our era. What he accomplished after
that, while not less surely, was more quietly
done. His class in Florence, then known as
the "Duveneck Boys," his Italian paintings,
his series of Venetian and Florentine etchings,
his work as a sculptor, decorator, and as ad-
viser has been of inestimable value, the story
of his life affording a natural bridge by which
to pass from our early period to the present
day.

WOMAN WITH A FAN
1873

Like the romance of a long-forgotten day this lady emerges from
the dark with her fan, her graceful feathery hat, her quaint ruche, silk
dress, and black shawl. Asked once in reference to the superb paint-
ing of her eyes, the depth of them, Duveneck said : " Yes, in those
days I had eyes like a hawk and yet I painted two days on that one eye
in the light."

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WOMAN WITH A FAN
1873

II

Frank Duveneck was born in 1848 in Coving-
ton, Kentucky, across the Ohio River from
Cincinnati. Among his early recollections are
a variety of interesting incidents of the Civil
War. Naturally, living on the border-line
of North and South, he felt the influence of
the conflict through contact with the sick
and wounded; also with negro refugees, half
starved, helpless, and often not too hospitably
received. At this time the Benedictine Friars
were making altars for Catholic churches in
Covington, and they employed Duveaeck, still
a mere boy, in his first artistic work. He painted,
modeled, carved, decorated, finding a great
deal of pleasure in the variety of his work.
His ability soon attracted the attention of a
local painter named Schmidt, and later, at the
age of eighteen, of a church decorator of Ger-
man birth and training named Lamprecht,

14 FRANK DUVENECK

who coming just then to Cincinnati accepted
him as an assistant. The varied work which
followed proved of importance in Duveneck's
development. He learned his craft in the next
few years, the rough craft of painting on large
surfaces. He decorated churches in many dif-
ferent places, even as far away as Canada.
Realizing more and more his artistic ambition
and being strongly advised by his fellow dec-
orators to study abroad, he managed to get to
Munich, which had at this time taken the
place of Diisseldorf as the leading art school
in Germany, and entered the Royal Academy.
This was in 1870. After working for three
months in the Antique Class, Duveneck was
admitted, without any of the usual preparatory
life drawings, to the painting class of Wilhelm
Dietz, one of the radicals among the faculty
who had become a professor at the Academy
the same year that Duveneck entered. Among
his classmates at this time were two who
afterwards became famous; one of them being

YOUNG MAN WITH RUFF
1873

Another example of the artist's intensely vital construction of the
head with direct brush drawing.

YOUNG MAN WITH RUFF
1873

FRANK DUVENECK 17

Ludwig Loefftz, later a professor and after
that Director of the Munich Academy; and the
other, Wilhelm Triibner, who ranks among
the strongest modern German painters.

It is interesting to linger over the condition
of the art world of Munich at the time young
Duveneck stepped into it. It was a period of
transitions. Within a generation the sound
draughtsmanship, painstakingly built up on
German soil by schooling received in France,
had been followed by a wave of enthusiasm
for color and now again had received a fresh
impetus from Paris. At that time in the French
capital, Delacroix and Ingres, the arch-roman-
ticist and arch-classicist, still held their own.
Besides these there were masters such as those
glorifying the Napoleonic legend, Horace Ver-
net and Meissonier; the discoverers of the
Orient for art, Decamps, Marilhat, Fromen-
tin ; the genre painters of all kinds ; together
with the elegant portrayers of feminine beauty,
Cabanel, Baudry; the serious stylists, like

18 FRANK DUVENECK

Chasseriau, Flandrin, and Chenavard, and the
excellent landscape painters. And finally there
were the revolutionary realists with Courbet
at their head. In place apart stood Corot and
Millet, whose art though closely associated
with the Barbizon School is yet greater.

Something of all these was reflected in Mu-
nich in the sixties, and what is for us most in-
teresting is the fact that two men there at least
were following a course parallel to that of
Courbet. These men were Wilhelm Leibl,
whose influence in Munich was very strong
even then, and Wilhelm von Dietz, the young
instructor into whose hands Duveneck fell.
Their art, resisting the artificialities of the
older painters, Piloty and Makart, had been
inspired by an intense study of nature and of
the Dutch masters in the old Pinakothek, and
had, only the year before Duveneck's coming,
received a fresh impulse through a great exhi-
bition of French art in which Courbet was
represented by a roomful of paintings. Nature,

PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR LUDWIG

LOEFFTZ

1873

One of the artist's most beautiful works, a portrait all painters love
for its dignity and completeness.

PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR LUDWIG LOEFFTZ
1873

FRANK DUVENECK 21

pure and simple, was what interested them, —
" Un coin de la nature vu a travers un tem-
perament," was the watchword coined for
them by Emile Zola, the spokesman of the
new movement.

It was among such varied influences that
Duveneck had placed himself and, as was in-
evitable with his temperament, it was with
the naturalists that he instantly aligned him-
self. Theirs was the spirit in which Duveneck
approached his work.

Given immediately the close contact with a
mood and method so absolutely suited to him,
and remembering also the technical skill which
he had already gained, especially through his
free handling of paint in the work of church
decoration in America, we can more easily un-
derstand the rapid progress of this newcomer
in the stimulating art world of Munich, —
this blond, vigorous, and single-hearted young
giant with the " eye like a hawk," fresh from
a new world and conscious of his own power.

22 FRANK DUVENECK

During his first year in Munich, Duveneck
took most of the prizes of the Academy, from
antique drawing to composition, a progress
which was looked upon as nothing short of
phenomenal. The admirable study of a Cir-
cassian in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
belongs to that year. At that time competitive
compositions were made, the prize-winners
were granted the use of a studio, the expenses
for models to complete the prize competition
usually being paid in addition. Duveneck won
this prize in 1872. After establishing himself in
the newly won studio he did not, and indeed
soon proved that he did not have to, return to
Dietz's class, for to this time belongs that series
of canvases of which we need recall only one,
the "Whistling Boy." In this picture are fully
evident the qualities which startled and quickly
attracted the other painters and students to him.
Foremost among these is the expressive use
of the paint itself, an astonishing virtuosity of
brushwork closely related to Franz Hals, in

UNFINISHED PORTRAIT STUDY
1873

Note the vitality of brush expression in large planes, just preced-
ing the development of detail within the planes.

UNFINISHED PORTRAIT STUDY
1873

FRANK DUVENECK 25

which the daring and yet perfectly controlled
hand defines planes, textures, and color with an
unhesitating brush — loaded with paint. Even
to the amateur this method makes an appeal,
its chief merit being liveliness and force with
rich, vibrant color. Later, in the portrait of
the "Woman with Forget-Me-Nots," which is
dated 1876, we feel the distinct ripening in pic-
torial insight. The fact that Duveneck at that
time used to take his pictures to the Pinakothek
and set them beside the old masters, the Dutch
and Flemish being his favorite ones, makes us
understand that as the " Whistling Boy " was
Duveneck pure and simple, the " Woman with
Forget-Me-Nots" is a development, through
an inspiration that comes straight from the
Netherlands, the hands being very suggestive
of Rubens. Duveneck used a restricted palette
in those days, composed chiefly of plain earth
colors. A student who once asked some one
who knew Duveneck in Munich, what kind of
brushes and colors the latter then used, received

26 FRANK DUVENECK

the answer : " Oh, generally somebody else's."
In later years Duveneck came under the spell
of the French painters. For a time he became
vitally interested in their technique, so without
much ado he set himself to study their style for
several years, many of his enthusiasts lament-
ing this change. There is a large portrait of his
wife in the Cincinnati Museum which reveals
strikingly this departure; it is a gracefully dis-
tinguished work.

PORTRAIT OF MR. WILLIAM ADAMS
1874

Note the stately placing of the figure on the canvas, the directness
of expression with the brush, the subtle values in solid painting.

PORTRAIT OF MR. WILLIAM ADAMS
1874

Ill

Toward the end of the year 1873, the year in
which the cholera broke out in Munich, Du-
veneck returned to America. He went at once
to Chicago on a commission in connection with
a church decoration. Not wishing to carry too
much, he traveled with little luggage and no
painting material, expecting to buy what he
needed there. Upon arriving in Chicago he soon
found to his surprise that such things as artist
materials were unobtainable goods at that time,
in a town that to-day can boast of having at least
three thousand artists and art students. So he
was obliged to remain idle until the material
could be sent for. Upon his return to Cincin-
nati he was occupied there with several por-
trait orders, but an exhibition of a group of his
portraits from Munich attracted little or no
public attention, which is perhaps not surpris-
ing in the state of connoisseurship then existing^

30 FRANK DUVENECK

Then came the year 1875, in which his one-
man show in Boston proved more than a suc-
cess, coming near a sensation. Besides receiv-
ing excellent criticisms, the whole collection
was sold. Nobody was more amazed at this
success than Duveneck himself. He has always
attributed his favorable reception to William
Morris Hunt's lectures on art, which together
with Hunt's own work had cleared the way.
Leibl, whose work in Germany at that time was
very similar to Duveneck's, was still absolutely
misunderstood there by both press and public;
in fact, he had been obliged to leave Munich for
the country in 1872, largely because of the lack
of funds. If Duveneck had been intent on busi-
ness he would have accepted the very flattering
inducements offered him to remain in Boston.
However the call of the artist life in Munich
was too strong to be resisted, so he declined
them and returned to Munich the same year,
where he worked until 1877. In company with
his friend William M. Chase, Duveneck then

TURKISH PAGE
1876

The significance of this handsome arrangement becomes especially
evident when we think that it was painted as early as 1876 and first
exhibited the following year. In company with the work of other
young Americans, " The Turkish Page " constituted a direct chal-
lenge to the prevailing conventional spirit of the National Academy.
With the exception of Duveneck's mural paintings, this canvas must
be regarded as his most completely carried out composition.

FRANK DUVENECK 33

went to Venice, where the two experienced al-
ternations of hardship and prosperity, most of
the time managing to exist on practically noth-
ing and enj oying themselves doing it. One year
later, 1878, Duveneck was back in Munich.
Chase returned to America and connected him-
self with the Art Students' League which had
just been formed, teaching being then the only
professional work which he found profitable.
It was the year before, as I have already said,
in the Spring exhibition of the National Acad-
emy of Design in New York, that the group of
young Americans had exhibited for the first
time together, works which, made in Munich
and Paris, were destined to produce the most
profound and far-reaching results in America's
art development. The most notable among the
exhibitors were Duveneck, Chase, Inness, and
Shirlaw. The conservative element of the
Academy, which had been having things all its
own way up to that time, became extremely
agitated over the success of these newcomers

34 FRANK DUVENECK

from abroad, and especially over the fact that
the canvases of these men were given such ex-
cellent places. At once a meeting was called
and a resolution passed, that every Academi-
cian should henceforth have reserved for his
work eight feet of space on the line. While
this extreme measure was recalled later, it
certainly showed plainly the hostile attitude
towards these young painters, all of whom we
regard to-day as more or less important fac-
tors in the development of our national art.
Incidentally the National Academy's action
resulted in the forming of the "Society of
American Artists," which disbanded only a
few years ago.

One of the sensations of this Academy Ex-
hibition proved to be Duveneck's "Turkish
Page," now in the Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts. The absolute mastery of all tech-
nical difficulties, the justness of his tonal val-
ues, and the solidity of his — I might say, wet
into wet — straightforward painting, were all

WOMAN WITH FORGET-ME-NOTS
1876

Almost devotional in spirit, the dignity of this portrait takes us hack
to the days of the great Dutch painters. Unconsciously almost we
feel Rembrandt, Rubens, and Franz Hals. She is of their company.

WOMAN WITH FORGET-ME-NOTS
1876

FRANK DUVENECK 37

things which had never been seen before quite
as in this canvas. The manner in which the
various textures of this ambitious arrangement
are presented is very handsome, indeed. Be-
sides the modeling and fine flesh quality of
the boy, there are the various beautifully ren-
dered accessories, like the drapery in the back
and the leopard skin in the foreground, the
metallic quality of the brass bowl and vase,
and finally the beauty of the grapes and plum-
age of the white cockatoo with wings out-
stretched and crest raised. Chase painted the
same arrangement with Duveneck, only on a
much smaller canvas; in fact, the pictures
were painted together in Chase's studio. Du-
veneck never thought his own picture quite
finished. While at work their money gave out
and both artists were hard put to pay the little
model for the sittings. The works of the other
members of the group were the same in char-
acter, inasmuch as they revealed a grasp, a
devotion to the beauty of nature, at once truth-

38 FRANK DUVENECK

ful, bold, and yet how fine in color and in re-
lation of light and shadow. Chase showed at
the Academy his much-discussed picture called
" The Man with the Pipe," which was a por-
trait of Duveneck.

One of the prominent New York papers of
the year 1877 made the following statement as
to Duveneck's "Turkish Page": "Here at
last is painting for painting's sake ; study for
youth's delight in study, an earnest of the day
when our artists shall be bred at home as well
as born at home, and the seal of a foreign
school, the approval of a foreign master, shall
no longer be necessary to give an American
a position among his own countrymen. Ten
years with such a start as this and we shall
send to the next exposition something better
than sewing machines and patent cow milkers;
we shall send pictures and statues that will
not be shamed by being set alongside the work
of France and England. American artists will
find at home that atmosphere which for many

SKETCH OF A TURK
1876

In richness of warm color and admirable breadth of statement this
canvas ranks among those of Duveneck's strongest period. It was
Chase who one day picked up this picturesque figure from the streets
of Munich and, knocking on Duveneck's door, cried to him : " Come
on over, I have a Turk, — the real thing."

SKETCH OF A TURK
1876

FRANK DUVENECK 41

years they have run abroad to seek and which
to our great loss too many of them have found
there. The Wests and Leslies, the Stewarts,
Newtons, Boughtons, and Whistlers of the
future will be content to breathe their native
air and wear home-grown laurels, nor shall we
have the shame of disputing with foreigners
over our right to call our fellow-countryman a
man, who, for the sake of foreign employment,
denies his American birth and mispronounces
his own name."

IV

In the year 1878 Duveneck started a school
in Munich, which became so very popular
that soon two classes had to be formed of
about thirty each, one of Americans and Eng-
lish, the other of different nationalities; and
when the desire to again see Italy took him
back to Florence at the end of the following
year (1879) fully half of his students went with
him. Thus his school was transplanted to the
banks of the Arno, and the members soon
established themselves in the social as well as
the artistic circles of Florence as the " Duve-
neck Boys."

A live picture of this earnest but exuberant
group is given in W. D. Howells' story of
Florentine Life, " Indian Summer," where they
are called the " Inglehart Boys." The breezy
references to them are invested with a feeling
of interest and friendliness. One of the char-

PORTRAIT OF J. FRANK CURRIER
1876

This powerful portrait of Currier, one of the American personali-
ties in Munich at Duveneck's time there, deserves to be better known
in this country. Light is thrown on some of Currier's fervently
dashed-off impressions by the spirit of the eyes as we note them in
this portrait.'

PORTRAIT OF J. FRANK CURRIER
1876

FRANK DUVENECK 45

acters introduces them thus : " ' They were
here all last winter and they 've just got back.
It 's rather exciting for Florence.' She gave a
rapid sketch of the interesting exodus of a
score of young painters from an art school at
Munich under the head of the singular and
fascinating genius by whose name they be-
came known. ' They had their own school for
a while in Munich and then they all came
down into Italy in a body. They had their stu-
dio things with them, and they traveled third
class, and had the greatest fun. They were a
sensation in Florence. They went everywhere
and were such favorites. I hope they are go-
ing to stay.'" Such was the impression of
them which Howells found in Florence when
he went there the year after they had dis-
banded, and it should be remembered that the
Florence of that day was a rallying place for
the most fascinating people of Europe.

The " Duveneck Boys " stayed together for
about two years working in Florence in the

46 FRANK DUVENECK

winter and in Venice in the summer. Among
them were John W. Alexander, John Twacht-
man, Joseph DeCamp, Julius Rolshoven, Oliver
Dennett Grover, Otto Bacher, Theodore Wen-
del, Louis Ritter, Ross Turner, Harper Pen-
nington, Charles Forbes, George E. Hopkins,
Julian Story, Charles E. Mills, Albert Rein-
hart, Charles H. Freeman, Henry Rosenberg,
John O. Anderson, Charles Abel Corwin, and
others. Oliver Dennett Grover, the youngest
of the group, in speaking about his colleagues
said that the advice of John Twachtman, of
the Cincinnati contingent, one of the older
ones, whose knowledge was wider, was ap-
preciated next to that of the " Old Man," as
they lovingly denominated Duveneck. Then
he continued: "Joseph DeCamp was just
plain * Joe ' in those days, the breeziest, cheek-
iest, most warm-hearted Bohemian in Venice.
Full of life, energy, and ambition, he worked
unceasingly and gave and took many a hard
knock. Rolshoven too was endowed by nature

RED-HAIRED MAN WITH RUFF
1876

This head recalls Rubens. It is full of character, strongly con-
structed, closely drawn, and of astonishing luminosity. The brush-
work is limpid.

RED-HAIRED MAN WITH RUFF
1876

FRANK DUVENECK 49

with the artistic temperament, making it espe-
cially difficult for him to adapt himself to rou-
tine work. Alexander, of course, was the born
favorite and leader which he continued to be
throughout his life. We always thought, had
Alexander not chosen art as his vocation, he
might have become a great diplomat. I remem-
ber him at the last annual meeting of the Na-
tional Academy of Design at which he presided,
and during the little while I could converse with
him he took occasion to speak of student days,
and to voice feelingly his sense of the obliga-
tion he and all of us were under to Duveneck ;
incidentally, also, recalling Sargent's beautiful
estimate of him. The student days in Italy
were all too short, but while they lasted they
were more significant, probably, than a simi-
lar period in the lives of most students, because
more intensified, more concentrated. The usual
student experiences of work and play, elation
and dejection, feast and famine, were ours, of
course, but in addition to that, and owing to

5 o FRANK DUVENECK

peculiar circumstances and conditions, the ad-
vantage of the intimate association and con-
stant companionship we enjoyed not only with
our leader but also with his acquaintances and
fellow artists, men and women from many
lands, was unique and perhaps quite as valu-
able as any actual school work. We lived in
adjoining rooms, dined in the same restaurant,
frequented the same cafes, worked and played
together with an intimacy only possible to
that age and such a community of interests."

The inspiration of this class was well epito-
mized by Duveneck's old professor, Diez; it
was " Work." It was his custom at the begin-
ning of the year to make an address to the class,
and in closing his talk he always said: "Now,
I don't want any geniuses in this class; I don't
care for pupils who claim an abundance of
talent; but what I do want is a crowd of good
workers." " This is the thought I have always
tried to instil into my pupils," says Mr. Duve-
neck. Mr. Grover told me once at the time of

THE COBBLER'S APPRENTICE
1877

This striking life-size canvas, in subject so like " The Whistling
Boy," is yet entirely different. Aside from the fact that the little
model for the earlier work had black hair while this one's is red, the
difference in technique is self-evident. While in " The Whistling
Boy " young Duveneck centered all of his attention upon the head,
conveying planes and texture with remarkable care and feeling, this
canvas is a more broad statement, all parts of it being boldly and
swiftly expressed. Certain passages in it make one think of Manet,
yet Duveneck had never seen any of the French master's works at
that time. The canvas, painted in Munich, was originally sold there
for twenty-five dollars to Mr. von Hessling, the American Vice-
Consul, was for a time owned by Mr. Joseph Stransky, and is now in
the collection of Mr. Charles P. Taft. In May of that same year
(1877) Duveneck and Chase left for Venice, Duveneck stopping in
Innsbruck where he painted the portrait of Susan B. Anthony.

THE COBBLER'S APPRENTICE
1877

FRANK DUVENECK 53

his Duveneck lecture in Chicago : " His clear-
ness of vision and surety of hand were simply
masterly. At that time the rarity of his skill
was not realized, by me at least. In my inno-
cence I imagined a few years of study and
training would give one a similar certainty and
skill. During the years since that time I have
watched the work of many painters, some of
them great men, but for the quality of pure
painter ability I have never known his equal."

Already at the time of Duveneck's classes in
Italy, it was the brushwork instead of the care-
fully finished charcoal or crayon drawing that
he insisted upon with his pupils as the real
foundation of a picture ; he imparted the paint-
er's rather than the draughtsman's point of
view in teaching the student, once the rough
outlines were suggested in charcoal, to cover
his canvas quickly with paint, boldly blocking
in the large masses.

In Florence, Duveneck found it hard to work
himself, owing to his being so well known, in

54 FRANK DUVENECK

fact — pursued, as would appear to have been
the case from Pennell's remark in his book on
Whistler, that he and Whistler used to run
across Duveneck in little out-of-the-way cafes,
where he was hiding from them. This lasted
for two more years when Duveneck decided
to disband his class, thinking it would be better
for his group of really fine students to go back
to Munich or Paris on account of the oppor-
tunity of seeing what was going on through
exhibitions and the like.

PORTRAIT OF JOHN W. ALEXANDER
1879

Duveneck took Alexander with him to Florence ahead of his other
pupils to help him find the right kind of studios. Once that task was
completed and while waiting for the class, Duveneck painted this
brilliant, gentlemanly portrait of young Alexander in a few hours.

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In 1880 Duveneck became keenly interested
in etching, but a visit to America soon inter-
rupted this work. Returning to Venice after
about a year he produced, in 1883 and 1884, some
twenty notable plates. Without his knowledge,
in 1881, Lady Collin Campbell had sent his three
etchings of the " Rivadegli Schiavoni, Venice,"
to London, for the first exhibition of the " New
Society of Painter-Etchers" at the Hanover
Gallery. The story of how several members of
that society suspected that they were the works
of Whistler, under a nom de plume, is well
known, the facts having been put on record
various times and Whistler's witty correspond-
ence on the subject being included in "The
Gentle Art of Making Enemies." In this con-
nection Seymour Haden later said that after
seeing the etchings there was absolutely no
doubt with him as to their originator ; that he

58 FRANK DUVENECK

could not help but feel at once the difference of
temperament between Whistler andDuveneck.
Pennell also justly says in his book on Whis-
tler that it is incredible that two etchers like
Haden and Legros could have mistaken the
work of Duveneck for that of Whistler. The
difference of upbuilding, of technique, and of
touch certainly to us to-day appears striking
between the work of the two men. Duveneck's
etchings of the " Riva degli Schiavoni " were
made before Whistler made his ; in fact Otto H.
Bacher, one of the "Duveneck Boys" in Venice,
tells us in his book, " With Whistler in Ven-
ice," that Whistler saw these etchings as Bacher
was helping Duveneck bite the plates, and that
Whistler said with characteristic frankness:
"Whistler must do the Riva also." Haden
wrote to Duveneck at the time, among other
things about these etchings: " In the meantime
I assure you your works are the admiration of
all who come to our gallery. Pray do not stop
your work in this direction; we shall all be

WELL AND WATER-TANK, ITALIAN VILLA

1887

OLD TOWN BROOK, POLLING, BAVARIA

1878

Duveneck's color, often restrained except in his flesh tints, bursts
forth occasionally in his landscapes in a surprisingly luminous man-
ner.

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WELL AND WATER-TANK, ITALIAN VILLA
1887

OLD TOWN BROOK, POLLING, BAVARIA
1878

FRANK DUVENECK 61

much interested in seeing more of it and doing
it all the honor we can."

One year after the controversy Duveneck
showed in London another group of etchings
which again attracted much interest, Haden
testifying his appreciation by buying all that he
could get. All of Duveneck's Italian etchings
convey his sense of architectural richness and
with that the simple pictorial bigness, complete
in every way, that characterizes his other work.
His plates are superbly conceived and mas-
terly in their draughtsmanship. The plate of
the " Rialto " is among those that best convey
Duveneck's personal force of conception and
touch. Many of his plates have unfortunately
been destroyed or lost and few prints are in
existence. In those Venetian days Duveneck
used to see a good deal of Whistler ; they were
always friendly, but the two were too utterly
unlike for the friendship to go beyond a certain
point.

An amusing little story relates to this time.

62 FRANK DUVENECK

Duveneck and De Camp, who were printing
one day, were sorely in need of paper. They
asked Bacher to tell them where he got his
beautiful handmade paper. Bacher revealed
the secret to the two startled artists in a whis-
per. Doubtful whether he was merely joking,
they nevertheless set out gamely for the mar-
ket, where to their satisfaction they did find the
exquisite paper which was used by a couple of
women to wrap up butter. Whistler, who also
heard about this, was not slow in laying in as
much of a stock of the paper as he could get.

In 1886 Duveneck was married to Miss Eliza-
beth Boott, of Boston, herself a painter of dis-
tinction. Miss Boott was born in Boston, and,
having lost her mother while still a very young
child, was taken by her father to Florence, to
live with two of her aunts. Later she went to
Paris to study painting with Couture and lived
with his family. At the age of eighteen she
came to America and studied with William

FLORENTINE FLOWER GIRL
1887

Bathed in the sunshine of outdoors. The form expression and the
brush-work reflect the influence upon him of the modern French
painter's point of view and method.

FLORENTINE FLOWER GIRL
1887

FRANK DUVENECK 65

Morris Hunt, who had been a pupil of Couture
before falling so strongly under the influence
of Millet. About this time Duveneck's one-
man show was held in Boston and was greatly
admired by Miss Boott ; so much so that she
induced her father to purchase the portrait of
Mr. Adams, which is now in the Cincinnati
Museum. Duveneck's various portraits of his
wife reveal a character refined, womanly, and
at the same time marked by firmness, and this
latter quality was clearly demonstrated in the
present instance. Miss Boott determined not
only to own the portrait of Mr. Adams, but to
study with the man who had painted it. Ac-
cordingly she and her father sought out Du-
veneck in Munich in 1879, their cab drawing
up at the door when he was in the very act of
closing his studio to go to Polling, Bavaria.
She having got so far, it is not remarkable
that the young artist's lack of enthusiasm over
teaching a young girl should have been over-
come, so he advised her to paint for a while in

66 FRANK DUVENECK

Munich, but gladly offered to criticise her work
on his return. The sequel to this story was their
engagement which, however, did not result in
marriage until nearly seven years later. They
were married in Paris in 1886 and spent the
two brief years before her untimely death, in
Florence, in a villa on the crest of a hill over-
looking the city. She died in Paris and lies
buried in the Allori Cemetery in Florence,
where the memorial figure in bronze, which
Duveneck created for it, marks the spot. A
son, Frank, survives her.

Mrs. Duveneck possessed great talent. Her
water-colors and canvases, among them pow-
erful studies of figures and landscapes, but
chiefly of still life, place her without effort
among artists of achievement.

SIESTA
1887

Notice the superb feeling of complete rest. The understanding of
form, the realization of weight are too evident to need comment ; in
color the painting absolutely glows. The canvas was painted in Flor-
ence, the model being the same as of the " Florentine Flower Girl."
The picture was acquired by the Queen City Club of Cincinnati.

I— 1

CO

VI

Duveneck returned to his old home, Cin-
cinnati, after his wife's death, and there he
has since lived. From this time, his vitality
went less into his own work and more into
that of others, yet his versatile power was
demonstrated when he made the superb me-
morial and when, with the cooperation of
Clement J. Barnhorn, he made the statue of
Emerson, now in Emerson Hall at Harvard.
The bust portrait of Dr. Charles W. Eliot
also belongs to that time. In the spring of
1894 Duveneck spent two months in Spain.
Most of his time there was occupied in the
Prado, where he copied Velasquez, the works
he chose being the "Portrait of the In-
fanta Margarita," the "Equestrian Portrait of
Prince D. Baltasar Carlos," " Portrait of King
Philip IV, in a Hunting Suit," " Portrait of
King Philip IV, of Advanced Age," and "The

70 FRANK DUVENECK

Idiot of Coria." His latest work of importance
in painting was an immense mural decoration,
started in 1904 and completed in igog. It was
given in memory of his mother to St. Mary's
Cathedral in Covington, Kentucky.

The most comprehensive exhibition, outside
of Cincinnati, ever made of Duveneck's work
was, as I have indicated, his one-man gallery
at the San Francisco Exposition in 1915. It
included thirty oil paintings, twelve Venetian
and one Florentine etching, and a replica of
the Memorial. This replica was taken from
the marble copy in the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts. In the group of paintings was one
of the earliest Munich canvases. It was a por-
trait of a man with a red fez, its quiet, forceful
grasp of character arousing at once a good
deal of discussion among Munich artists. The
most important document of that time, " The
Old Schoolmaster," painted in 1871, was not
included in that collection. It was exhibited
in Boston in 1875, and sold for one hundred

RIVA DEGLI SCHIAVONI, VENICE
1880

Duveneck's etchings are of the same breadth and vigor as his
paintings. For him " The Riva " is one of unusual delicacy.

FRANK DUVENECK 73

dollars to Dr. Angel, an art connoisseur, and
was owned until recently by his widow, who
has just presented the work to the Boston Mu-
seum of Fine Arts. In speaking of the portrait
of this old Munich teacher from the Old Man's
Home there, the "Boston Transcript" of 1875
said : " The portrait is that of an elderly man
who might be an antiquated fiddler in a Ger-
man orchestra. Only the head and breast are
there, the coat being closely buttoned. The
coloring is well-nigh perfection, every feature
of age being elaborated with most vigorous
effect." The " Nation " of the same year speaks
of the relief, the vigor, the frankness, and com-
prehensive simplicity, qualities in it which are
most striking. A woodcut of this canvas was
made by a Mr. Juengling, and proved a prize-
winner among woodcuts in 1880.

The " Whistling Boy " belongs to the year
1872. The magic dexterity of the brush as dis-
played here, the power of perception, the nat-
ural expression and rich coloring remain amaz-

74 FRANK DUVENECK

ing to us to this very day. "Put it down," was
the precept Duveneck always had ready for his
pupils ; how completely he realized its meaning
in the painting of this urchin, a masterpiece by
a young man barely twenty-four years old !

In the "Woman with a Fan," which belongs
to the following year, the dignity of arrange-
ment, but especially the study of the head, its
soft flesh colors and texture, with the only two
strongly defined accents, the dark eyes, is truly
superb. This was one of the portraits sold orig-
inally for three hundred dollars from his Boston
exhibition. The same year he painted the por-
trait of Loefftz. Anybody, but especially those
who paint themselves, will find it hard to be-
lieve that while there may have been some pre-
vious preparation of the canvas, this beautifully
complete piece of painting was done in one
sitting, lasting all day and to the point of ex-
haustion of both painter and sitter. This was
one of the portraits that the German Govern-
ment indirectly tried to buy for the National

THE RIALTO, VENICE
1883

Characteristic of the breadth and dignity of Duveneck's whole se-
ries of Italian etchings.

FRANK DUVENECK 77

Gallery in Berlin, but was not able to get. There
are many portraits of this first Munich period
of Duveneck's that he has lost track of. He used
to paint anybody then who came along and put
twenty marks down on the table. The " Un-
finished Portrait Study " of a girl's head, belong-
ing to the same year, 1873, is interesting not
only as a piece of superb painting, but because
of important associations. It was painted in
Munich, in 1873, the year of the cholera, of
which Wilhelm von Kaulbach,the official head
of the Royal Academy, was one of the victims.
The sketch of this girl was the work of a couple
of hours. The model was supposed to come
back the next day, but when Duveneck arrived
for his sitting he was informed that she had died
during the night of the cholera. I dare say, in
regard to the depth of expression in this head,
that if the imagination were given rein it would
seem as though the artist must have been
spurred by some sense of her impending fate,
or as though in her that quickened spiritual

78 FRANK DUVENECK

life — which sometimes indicates approach-
ing death — was wide awake and looking out.
Dietz was so delighted with the sketch that
Duveneck gave it to him. But it marked the
close of his stay in Munich, for he immediately
left for America.

The portrait of Frank Currier belongs to the
Art Institute in Chicago. The expression of this
intensely interesting painter is one of strong
intellectual life and power, making us easily
see the creator of his imposing "Approaching
Storm" in the Cincinnati Museum. In 1874 the
portrait of Mr. Adams was painted in Cincin-
nati. It is about the finest of his documents
of that year. To 1875 belongs "The Turkish
Page." The intensely alive portrait of John
W. Alexander comes several years later. The
two paintings by Duveneck in the Boston Tav-
ern Club were originally given to Vinton, the
artist and art critic, who lent them and after-
wards gave them to the club. One is a three-
quarters length portrait of John Landis, a

MEMORIAL TO ELIZABETH BOOTT

DUVENECK

1891

The original model, made in Cincinnati, is the property of the Mu-
seum. The photograph shows the bronze copy installed on her grave
in the " Campo Santo degli Allori " in Florence, the cemetery in
which Arnold Bocklin rests.

The Memorial was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1895 and awarded
then an " Honorable Mention."

There is a marble copy in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and
copies from the marble are owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, and the San Francisco Art
Association. Copies from the original model are in the Metropolitan
Museum, New York, and the John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis.

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FRANK DUVENECK 81

fellow artist of Duveneck's, whom the latter
painted several times. The other work is the
spirited sketch of a Turk, garbed in a rich yel-
low tunic.

As a permanent representation of an artist,
the Duveneck collection in the Cincinnati Mu-
seum is unique. It comprises about one hun-
dred paintings besides sculpture and etchings
and gives a complete account of his personal-
ity. In the spring of 1915 he established and
presented as a gift to the Museum this whole
collection, together with a great number of im-
portant works by other artists; in fact, we may
say his entire private collection. This gift was
made, to use his own words, "for the benefit
particularly of students of art in Cincinnati."

Duveneck has now for many years divided
his time between teaching, painting, and ad-
vising in all artistic matters of importance
in connection with the Cincinnati Museum.
Though Duveneck has received a number of

82 FRANK DUVENECK

honors and medals, he has little to say of
them. We know, however, that he is a member
of the American Institute of Arts and Letters
and the National Academy.

A typical example of Duveneck's naive way of
doing things is well illustrated in the following
incident. After painting a canvas of "Glouces-
ter Docks," in the summer of 1915, he was
offered fifteen hundred dollars for it by some
one who saw it there. " No," said Duveneck,
" I 've got to take that home to the boys and
show them that I 've been working." He ex-
hibited it in Cincinnati at the Art Club Exhibi-
tion, and for the sake of the commission, which
would benefit the Club, he put a price of only
eight hundred dollars on it. The picture was
immediately sold to the University Club. At
once Duveneck turned around and himself
bought several of the larger canvases in the
exhibition, donating them to one of the high
schools in Cincinnati.

I will also quote Mrs. Elizabeth Robins Pen-

[Facsimile of the Letter adopted first by the Foreign Members
of the Jury for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and
later endorsed by the Entire American Jury.]

F*ana>ia- Pacific International Exposition
1915

palace op fwk abts

DIVISION Or EXH1BIT9

Oma or tu Cai» SAN FRANCISCO,

DEPARTMENT OF Cumnu

FINE ARTS

June 2, 1915.

Chairman: Department Jury,

Department of Fine Arts.

Dear Sirs-

*Te, the representatives of foreign countries
acting upon the International Jury of Awards in the
Department of Fine Arts, do hereby ask your kind con-
sideration of the following recommendation unamiously
adopted by us in a meeting specially called for this
purpose.

llhereas, the comprehensive retrospective
collection of Ur. Frank Duveneck's works in oils,
etching and sculpture brought together here has un-
questionably 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, ws, the
foreign jurors on the International Jury of Award, feel
that some special recognition of his distinguished
contribution to American art should be awarded Ur. Frank
Duveneck, and we herewith recommend that a Special Uedal
of Honor be struck in his bio no r and awarded him.

We beg to remain.

Very respectfully,

(Signers)

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'WrVl^liA^UM

FRANK DUVENECK 83

nell's vivid picture of Duveneck's personal ap-
pearance in her book, " Nights*" because it
must be real, since, except for his now gray
hair and less drooping mustache, he has re-
mained the same quiet, easy-going giant dur-
ing all these years. Mrs. Pennell says in the
Venetian chapter : " Duveneck, as I remember
him then, was large, fair, golden-haired, with
long drooping mustache, of a type apt to suggest
indolence and indifference. As he lolled against
the red velvet cushions smoking his Cavour,
enjoying the talk of others as much as his own,
or more, for he had the talent of eloquent si-
lence when he chose to cultivate it, — his eyes
half shut, smiling with casual benevolence, he
may have looked to a stranger incapable of
action and as if he did not know whether he
was alone or not, and cared less. And yet he
had a big record of activity behind him, young
as he was ; he always inspired activity in oth-
ers, he was rarely without a large and devoted
following. . . ."

84 FRANK DUVENECK

And he never has been without a devoted
following. The artists and connoisseurs of his
own generation have continued to do him
honor. His pupils, old and new, in Cincinnati
or wherever they may be, are included in what
he likes to call " his Family." Of late years he
has traveled very little, seldom leaving his
Cincinnati studio and his home in Covington
for any great length of time. His closest ar-
tistic companions, since he became head of the
faculty of the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1900,
have been his co-workers, particularly his inti-
mate friends of long standing, Clement J. Barn-
horn and the late L. H. Meakin, their studios
having been together in the Museum, and
their joint labors spent in developing its col-
lections.

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CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U . S . A