ARTIST: Francis Martin Drexel (Pennsylvania, 1792 - 1863)
TITLE: Portrait of Lady
YEAR: 1824
MEDIUM: oil on canvas
CONDITION: Relined. Some paint losses. Some craquelure. Some scattered inpaintings.
ART SIZE: 30 x 24 inches / 76 x 60 cm
FRAME SIZE: unframed (In-House framing available)
SIGNATURE: lower left
CATEGORY: old antique vintage painting for auction sale online
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SKU#: 126350
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BIOGRAPHY:
Francis Martin Drexel (April 7, 1792 - June 5, 1863) was a Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, United States) banker and artist. He was the father of Anthony Joseph Drexel, the founder of Drexel University and the grandfather of Saint Katherine Drexel.Franz Martin Drexel was born April 7, 1792, the eldest son of Franz Josef Drexel and Magdalena Wilhelm, in Dornbirn, in the Austrian Vorarlberg, not far from the Swiss border. His father was a successful merchant with business associates in both Switzerland and Italy. In 1803, Francis was sent to study Italian and French at a Catholic convent school In Italy. Drexel would eventually become conversant in five languages. He returned two years later and was apprenticed to a painter in a nearby village. When Napoleon invaded Austria, in order to escape conscription, and with help from his father, he crossed the Rhine into Switzerland. He remained there for about five years, painting portraits, houses, and signs to support himself. In 1812, he returned to the Tyrol incognito. Conscription was still in force, so he went to Bern and continued his study of painting.In May 1817, Drexel took a ship from Amsterdam on the John of Baltimore, headed for Philadelphia, where he opened a studio and found work as an art instructor at Bazeley's Female Academy. A popular portrait painter, his work was frequently shown at the Philadelphia based Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts annual exhibitions.A law suit for libel against his brother-in-law, Bernard Gallagher, was settled out of court as damages would have bankrupted the latter. Although Gallagher acknowledged the false statements, nonetheless, commissions for paintings decreased and Drexel lost his position at Bazeley's. He then left his wife and two children in Philadelphia, to travel to Peru and Chile, painting portraits, including one of General Simon Bolivar. Drexel visited South America twice as well as Mexico.