Ohio History Journal

NANCY SAHLI

 

A Lost Portrait?

Frank Duveneck Paints

Elizabeth Blackwell

 

Frank Duveneck was probably Ohio's best known artist during the

late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and is certainly one

whose reputation has been sustained to the present day. Born in

Covington, Kentucky, in 1848, he began his career decorating

churches in the United States and Canada. In 1870 he traveled to

Munich to study with Wilhelm von Diez, returning three years later to

Cincinnati. By 1877, Duveneck's reputation had been firmly

established, chiefly as a result of his one-man show two years before

at the Boston Art Club. Indeed, it was Henry James who remarked in

his article on the exhibition in The Nation that "the discovery of an

unsuspected man of genius is always an interesting event, and

nowhere perhaps could such an event excite a higher relish than in

the aesthetic city of Boston."1 Despite the inducements, however,

which Duveneck received to stay in that city, including several

immediate orders for portraits, the artist decided to return to Europe.

Not until 1890 would he return to Cincinnati and to a distinguished

teaching career which lasted until his death in 1919.

Around the same time that Duveneck was born, in 1848, another

Cincinnati resident, Elizabeth Blackwell, was beginning her second

year of study at Geneva Medical College in Geneva, New York. She

was a native of Bristol England; in 1832, at the age of eleven, she had

emigrated to the United States with her family. In 1838, after

spending a few financially unsuccessful years in New York City, the

Blackwells moved to Cincinnati, where Elizabeth's father, Samuel,

intended to start a sugar refinery. His unexpected death shortly after

their arrival ended this scheme, and as a financial necessity the family

organized a school, the Cincinnati English and French Academy for

 

 

 

Dr. Sahli is a graduate of Vassar College and The University of Pennsylvania, and is

employed currently as an archivist for the National Historical Publications and Records

Commission, Washington, D.C.

1. Mahonri Sharp Young, "Duveneck and Henry James: A Study in Contrasts,"

Apollo, XCII, no. 103 (September 1970), 212.

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Young Ladies. Elizabeth taught there for a few years, but by 1845 she had decided to pursue a medical career. After two years of private study she was accepted at the Geneva school, where she graduated in 1849, thereby becoming the first woman medical school graduate in the United States. Throughout the years, an accepted part of Duveneck scholarship has been that in 1877, on his way from Germany to Italy, the artist stopped briefly in Austria, where he painted a portrait of Susan B. Anthony, one of the leaders of the American women's suffrage movement.2 The truth of this assertion is, however, highly suspect.       2. See Ibid., 213; Cincinnati Museum Association, Exhibition of the Work of Frank Duveneck (Cincinnati, 1936), 81; Josephine W. Duveneck, Frank Duveneck: Painter-Teacher (San Francisco, 1970), 66-67; Frank Duveneck (New York, 1972), unpaged. The Cincinnati exhibition catalogue claims that the portrait was done in 1887, while the Young article gives Salzburg, rather than Innsbruck, the more commonly

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Frank Duveneck                                              321

There is no example in the Duveneck literature of either a photographic reproduction or a verbal description of the work. Moreover, in the spring of 1877 Susan B. Anthony was in Kansas caring for her dying sister, Hannah Mosher. There is also no reference in the standard biography of Anthony to any portrait by Duveneck.3 There is, however, in the Blackwell Family Papers in the Library of Congress, correspondence describing a portrait of   accepted site, as the location of the sitting. Various companions, such as Louis Ritter, John W. Alexander, William Merritt Chase, and John H. Twachtman, are alleged by these authors to have accompanied Duveneck on his way from Munich to Italy. However, since no such companions are mentioned in the Blackwell papers, which are apparently the only surviving documentation for this period of Duveneck's career, it would seem most probable that he made the journey alone. 3. Ida Husted Harper, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, 3 vols. (Indianapolis, 1898-1908). Susan B. Anthony did not make a trip to Europe until 1883

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Elizabeth Blackwell painted by Duveneck in Innsbruck, Austria, in

1877. The error was probably originally perpetrated by Duveneck

himself. Trying to recall whom he had painted in Innsbruck, he

remembered that his sitter was a leader in the American women's

movement. Forgetting her name, he or someone else made the

mistaken assumption that it was Susan B. Anthony. It is now evident

that an Anthony portrait never existed. Likewise, the Blackwell

portrait has been completely unknown to Duveneck scholars.

After her graduation from medical school, Blackwell had studied in

Europe, and finally settled in New York City, where she practiced

medicine and founded the New York Infirmary, a hospital for women

and children. By 1869, however, she had given up her career in the

United States to return to her native England. In all probability, the

Blackwell portrait had its inception at the time of Duveneck's Boston

show in 1875. Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, who commissioned the work,

was a resident of the city, a former colleague of Blackwell, and the

founder of the New England Hospital for Women and Children.

Although there is no documentary evidence regarding her decision to

commission Duveneck to do the portrait, it can be inferred that she

was impressed by the artist's work at the Boston exhibit and decided

that Duveneck would be a suitable artist to paint Elizabeth Blackwell.

In the meantime, a decision had to be made regarding where the

portrait would be painted. Blackwell had been on a grand tour of the

continent since September 1876. By March 1877 she was in Italy, and,

according to the correspondence of her adopted daughter, Kitty Barry

Blackwell, arrangements for the painting had been completed:

Aunt B. is to have a life-size half-length portrait of herself painted in the

Tyrol. Dr. Zack - I can never remember how to spell her name - has put by

a sum for the purpose, means to have the painting exhibited in the Boston

Fine Arts Gallery all winter, then keep it while she lives, bequeathing it, on

her death, to the N. York Infirmary. We are in correspondence with an Artist

about the picture. I hope it will be well done - if it be, I shall have photos

taken from it.⁴

The decision to paint the portrait in the Tyrol, rather than in Munich,

Duveneck's European base, was due largely to the artist's increasing

dissatisfaction with his situation in Germany. In February 1877

Duveneck commented on his discontent in a letter to his friend John

M. Donaldson. "Munich," he began,

 

 

 

4. Kitty Barry Blackwell to Alice Stone Blackwell, March 24, 1877, The Blackwell

Family Papers, Library of Congress. Original punctuation and spelling have been

retained in this and subsequent quotations. The Blackwell-Duveneck correspondence

apparently has not survived.

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Frank Duveneck                                                323

 

has taken a great change since you left aspecially among the American boys

.... Munich will be quite deserted from the older American boys before long.

Chase is very anxious to make a change and will probably be in Paris by next

summer, I have also an intension of going to Paris or London by next

summer, Munich is very much plead out in the way of art there is nothing

done whatever and no pictures bought at all and I don't know but what I

would do better to get out of Munich as soon as possible.⁵

Duveneck did just that. By late spring, no doubt influenced by the

prospect of the Blackwell commission, he had decided to summer in

Italy, and proceeded south from Munich, stopping in Innsbruck,

Austria, to paint the portrait. Blackwell likewise arrived there in late

April, accompanied by her daughter.

Actual work on the painting began May 2, 1877, as Elizabeth

Blackwell tersely noted in her diary: "Mr Duvernack began

portrait."⁶ It is fortunate that Kitty Barry Blackwell corresponded

frequently with Dr. Blackwell's niece, Alice Stone Blackwell, for it is

these letters that shed the greatest light both on Frank Duveneck's

method of painting and the working relationship between him and his

sitter. By May 8, when Kitty wrote her first letter to Alice describing

the portrait, substantial progress had already been made:

The great work is fairly underway. Today Aunt Bessie is giving her Seventh

Sitting for her portrait to Mr Duverneck (Aunty encloses a note for Dr Zack

to ask that Mr D's money be sent to Venezia). It was very odd that, after the

first sitting, when the background was a dull Indian-red, & Aunty's body was

outlined in a still duller red, her face white, with only touches of colour where

the shadows were to fall. Mr D has contrived to give a most agreeable

likeness, with a very marked reminder of Grandma in it. I never noticed a

likeness to Grandma in Aunty before. However, the picture looks at present

like a Spirit-photo of Aunt B. Did you ever see those queer Spirit-photos? If

Aunty departed and I attended a Seance the medium wd contrive (if she knew

anything of us) to make just such a dim misty-suggestion of Aunt B. to appear

to me. I think Mr D is clever & I hope he'll succeed. He is an American -

born in Kentucky. You will be able to judge results for you will see Aunty

exhibited at the Club & Gallery in Boston next winter.⁷

 

Within a few days it was obvious that artist and subject had de-

veloped a friendly working relationship, although Blackwell's mater-

nal interest in Duveneck never progressed to the point of adoption:

 

 

 

 

5. Frank Duveneck to John M. Donaldson, February 17, 1877, The Papers of John

M. Donaldson, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. The Papers of

Frank Duveneck at the Archives of American Art do not contain any material relating

to the portrait.

6. Elizabeth Blackwell, Diary, May 2, 1877, Blackwell Family Papers.

7. Kitty Barry Blackwell to Alice Stone Blackwell, May 8, 1877, Ibid.

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Aunt B is being painted in the next room & as the light from my door is

unfavorable, it has been shut. The picture is getting on splendidly & I think

will prove a great success. At any rate Mr Duveneck is not discontented with

his subject, for he expresses a wish that he may paint Aunty again & in his

own studio.

Aunty is beginning to take an interest in Mr D. I think if we remained long

he would be a second case of adoption. Aunty used to say she should adopt

"six young men." I'll not allow her to go beyond six at any rate.8

Elizabeth Blackwell's last sitting was on May 18, and the following

day she treated Duveneck to dinner before his departure for Venice.

Kitty set down her final thoughts on the work as well as on Frank

Duveneck in a letter to Alice of May 24:

On the 19th Mr Duveneck finished the portrait & the same p.m. it was started

on its journey to Boston. It is an admirable portrait in every way & I think

would always bring Dr. Zack more than she has paid for it, because it is a real

work of art. You know it is to be exhibited this Winter at the Fine Arts Club

and later at the Boston Museum. I withdraw any embargo as to speaking of

the picture. I hope it will be liked and that it may bring Mr Duveneck other

commissions. If ever you see any notices in Boston papers about the picture,

please send them to me, that Mr. D may see them. He is a good artist, but his

general education is very limited. It is disappointing to find so unusually

clever an Artist speaking bad grammar & so unpolished in his manners. Aunt

B. has given him some hints which I think may help him.. . . We gave Mr D.

a dinner to celebrate the great work being over & afterwards Mr. D. started

for Venice.9

Unfortunately, the haste with which the painting was sent to the

United States was not to its ultimate good, as Elizabeth Blackwell

wrote to her friend Barbara Bodichon in November of 1877:

The large life size portrait for which I gave up so much time at Innsbruck,

reached Boston with its packing case quite destroyed, its handsome frame

broken to pieces, and its background very much damaged. Fortunately no

injury was done to the face or more delicate parts of the picture, and it has

given great satisfaction, being considered a fine work of art.10

Here the story of the Blackwell portrait comes to an abrupt end. A

survey of Boston art exhibit catalogues and newspaper notices from

1877 to 1880 indicates that the painting was never exhibited as

planned, its damaged condition probably militating against this.11

 

 

 

8. Kitty Barry Blackwell to Alice Stone Blackwell, May 10, 1877, Ibid.

9. Kitty Barry Blackwell to Alice Stone Blackwell, May 24, 1877, Ibid.

10. Elizabeth Blackwell to Barbara Bodichon, November 15, 1877. The Elizabeth

Blackwell Collection, Special Collections, Columbia University Library.

11. Materials consulted include the collection of exhibit catalogues in the library of

the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and such newspapers as the Boston Daily Globe and

the Boston Evening Journal.

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Frank Duveneck                                                   325

 

There are no photographs of the work, such as Kitty Barry Blackwell

wanted to be made, in the collections of Blackwell family papers at

the Library of Congress and the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe

College. There is no mention of the portrait in Marie Zakrzewska's

will, and, indeed, no mention of any bequest to the New York

Infirmary.¹² The portrait does not hang in the halls of the Infirmary,

nor is there any record of its ever having been there.13

Does the portrait still exist? Are there other Duveneck paintings,

not to mention those by other artists, whose existence is noted only in

manuscript collections generally falling outside the purview of art

historians? Although the portrait itself may be lost, it is hoped that

this historical identification has been a useful focal point for

presenting some new insight into the lives of Elizabeth Blackwell and

Frank Duveneck. Now, someone, find the portrait!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. Marie E. Zakrzewska, Will, January 23, 1901 (Docket No. 120708, Suffolk

County Probate Court, Boston, Massachusetts). Since "pictures" were one of the

categories of items left by Zakrzewska to her brother-in-law Albert Crouze and his son

Herrman of Brooklyn, New York, it is possible that the portrait passed into their

hands.

13. John P. DaVanzo, Assistant Administrator, New York Infirmary, to author,

October 13, 1975.

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