Frank Duveneck, American Portrait Painter

Frank Duveneck was an American figure and portrait painter born on October 9, 1848, in Covington, Kentucky. His parents were German immigrants, and his father died when he was a year old. His mother remarried a businessman named Joseph Duveneck, and the artist legally adopted his stepfather's name when he married in 1886. 

 

Portrait of a Woman with Black Hat 1890, Pastel by Frank Duveneck

Duveneck began painting in his early teens and was employed as an assistant to Wilhelm Lamprecht, a successful German-born decorator. At age 21, Duveneck studied in Germany at the Munich Academy with Wilhelm Dietz and was greatly influenced by the works of Frans Hals, Rembrandt, and Peter Paul Rubens.