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Frank Duveneck

Reclining Nude, 1892

oil on canvas

27 x 54 in.

Gift of Josephine W. Duveneck

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Born in Covington, Kentucky, Frank Duveneck began his art training as an apprentice to a church decorator in Cincinnati before traveling to Munich to study at the Royal Academy. While there Duveneck shared a studio with William Merrrit Chase. After returning to Cincinnati, he painted portraits, decorated churches and taught art classes.  He returned to Europe and opened an art school in Munich and Polling in Bavaria where he trained Americans who became known as the “Duveneck Boys.”  He also opened a studio in Italy and spent winters in Florence and summers in Venice.  His painting began to change from the dark interiors of his Munich style to the brighter palette of Impressionism, but much of his work continued to exhibit the style of his Munich training.  At the turn of the century Duveneck returned to Cincinnati and taught at the Cincinnati Art Academy, spending summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts between trips to Italy, France, and Germany. 

The art academy in Cincinnati made it easier to obtain models, allowing Duveneck to pursue his study of the nude.  While as many as fifteen to twenty examples of his figures in standing, sitting or reclining positions have been identified, this canvas of a reclining nude from 1892 is the best known.  In this work, Duveneck proves himself the realist, boldly brushing a living, tactile sense onto the beautifully rendered flesh, and enhancing the composition’s immediacy by his unusual vantage point. 

Reference

Michael Quick.  American Painter Abroad: Frank Duveneck’s European Years, Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1887.  ISBN-13: 978-0931537073