Frank Duveneck

Frank Duveneck painted with dark backgrounds, bold, rapid brushstrokes and a direct, unfussy realism learned in Munich and inspired by Frans Hals. His portraits of boys, old men and working people have a raw energy that surprised American audiences in the 1870s.

He was born in Covington, Kentucky, in 1848, and studied at the Munich Academy under Wilhelm von Diez. His Whistling Boy of 1872 is typical of this period. He ran schools in Munich and at Polling in Bavaria, where his students, known as the Duveneck Boys, included John Twachtman. He married his student Elizabeth Boott in 1886 and lived in Florence until her death in 1888. Afterwards he returned to America and taught for many years at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Elizabeth Boott Duveneck is a tender portrait of his wife. He died in Cincinnati in 1919.