Frank Duveneck (American, 1848–1919) was born in Covington, Kentucky, in 1848. Recognized as one of the most influential American art teachers of the late 19th century, Duveneck began his studies at the Munich Royal Academy in 1870 under Wilhelm von Diez. Except for a brief return to Cincinnati in 1874–75, he spent the next several years painting and teaching across Munich, Venice, Florence, and Paris.

By 1879, Duveneck had settled in Florence, where he emerged as a highly influential teacher. Among his students affectionately known as "The Duveneck Boys" were artists who would go on to shape American art. He painted alongside prominent contemporaries such as William Merritt Chase and John Henry Twachtman. Following the death of his wife, Elizabeth Boott Duveneck, in 1888, he returned to the United States. He taught briefly in Boston before joining the faculty of the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1900, where he later served as dean.

Education

Studied at the Munich Royal Academy with Wilhelm von Diez, 1870–73

Awarded honorary LL.D. from the University of Cincinnati, 1917

Memberships

Society of Western Artists (President, 1897)

Society of American Artists, 1880

Associate of the National Academy of Design (ANA), 1905

National Academician (NA), 1906

Cincinnati Art Club (President, 1896)

National Institute of Arts and Letters (NIAL)

Jury member, American Section, Paris Exposition, 1899

Exhibitions

Boston Art Club: 1875 (solo), 1876, 1884, 1896

Society of American Artists: 1878

National Academy of Design: 1877, 1879, 1888 (Honorable Mention for Portrait of Elizabeth Boott)

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA): 1879, 1893–97, 1902

Society of Painter-Etchers, London: 1881

Paris Salon: 1881, 1885 (Hon. Mention), 1888, 1895 (Prize)

Columbian Exposition, Chicago: 1893 (Medal)

Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo: 1901 (Medal)

Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis: 1905 (Jury and Exhibitor)

Art Institute of Chicago (AIC)

Corcoran Gallery: 1907–10, 1916, 1957

Royal Academy, Berlin: 1910

International Fine Arts Exposition, Buenos Aires: 1911

Cincinnati Industrial Exposition: 1911 (Jury)

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco: 1915 (Medal of Honor and Jury)

Parrish Art Museum: 1984 (Painters-Etchers exhibition)

Cincinnati Art Museum: 1987

Public Collections

Smithsonian American Art Museum (NMAA)

National Gallery of Art (NGA)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (BMFA)

Cincinnati Art Museum

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)

Indianapolis Museum of Art

Montclair Art Museum

Memorial statue to Elizabeth Boott Duveneck, cemetery in Florence, Italy

University of Kentucky Art Museum (Archival materials)

References

Who Was Who in American Art (WW17)

Cincinnati Painters of the Golden Age

William Gerdts, Art Across America

Frank Duveneck: The Gloucester Years (exhibition catalogue)

D. Findlay Galleries, NYC

The Kentucky Painter from the Frontier Era to the Great War (Jones and Weber)

Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons

The American Painter-Etcher Movement

Peter Falk, Exhibition Record Series