In his day, Frank Duveneck was Cincinnati’s most celebrated artist. Born in Covington, Kentucky, to Bavarian immigrants, Duveneck traveled to Munich in 1870 to pursue his art education. At that time, Munich was home to some of the most advanced artists in Europe, including Wilhelm Leibl, whose dark, unsentimental portraits impressed the young American. Duveneck later became an influential teacher, bringing the liberating aspects of progressive German art to the United States.