Duveneck, Frank (1848-1919; American)
Riva degli Schiavoni, no.1 1880
Etching on paper, c.21.7 x 33.2 cm (plate)
Purchased 1899 (advice of Bernard Hall)
National Gallery of Victoria (55-2)

Duveneck, who grew up in Ohio, studied art in Munich, and later worked and taught there. By 1875 he had established a reputation as an outstanding young painter, lauded by Henry James amongst others.

This etching shows the famous quay next to the Doge’s Palace in Venice, also etched by Whistler at this time. The AGNSW owns an impression of the second etching Duveneck made of the same site, also in 1880.

Refs.

AR 1899, p.27; NGV 1905, p.69 (II.Stawell Gallery, no.124; ill. as shown here; as bought on Hall’s advice) [£4/15]

For the artist, see AKL 31 (2002), pp.313-14; Bénézit 4, pp.1447-49; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Duveneck, with further references, including the catalogue of his etchings by Emily Poole (Print Collector’s Quarterly, Dec.1938)

For Sydney’s impression of Duveneck’s second print, The Riva, Venice, also bought in 1899, see http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/404/ (with reproduction). Compare Whistler’s The Riva, from his “First Venice Set” published in 1880: see http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/etchings/etching/?filename=K1920202