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 DREXEL

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DREY

Drevet Hyacinthe Rigaud

poured in upon him faster tlian he could fill them, and throughout his life he had command of every impor- tant work produced in France. His engravings were mainly the portraits of distinguished people. Among his many superb plates a portrait of Colbert (1700) marks the acme of his art; and next in point of excel- lence come the portraits of Louis XIV and Louis XV, both after Rigaud. Other celebrated works of his are a Crucifixion, after Coypel, and a por- trait of Charles II of England. Dur- ing the last years of his life Drevet worked with his son and they produced plates together.

Pierre - Imbert Drevet, called the Younger Pierre, was born in Paris, 1697; died there, 1739. His father, the elder Drevet, gave him such assiduous in- struction that at the age of thirteen he produced a su- perb little plate which indicated his future eminence. At first he engraved after Lebrun, but he soon developed a style of his own, spontan- eous, sincere, and brilliant. Under his facile, sure, and soft graver every detail was rendered, every shade of colour and every variety of textiu-e. The result was always an harmonious unit. He was his father's constant companion and worked with un- wearying patience with liim. In 172.3 Pierre-Im- bert finished his portrait of Bossuet after Rigaud (see Catholic Encyclopedia, II, s. v. Bossuet), "per- haps the finest of all the engraved portraits of France" (Lippman). In 1724 the portrait of Cardi- nal Dubois was engraved. Both of these are treated broadly and freely, show magnificent handling of draperies, and possess exquisite finish. The great plate of Adrienne Lecouvreur (1730) and that of Samuel Bernard are by many authorities ranked with the Bossuet. For Bernard's portrait Rigaud himself made the drawing, a most unusual event in eighteenth-century engraving. Besides his mas- terly portraits, Pierre-Imbcrt produced many re- ligious and historical plates, chiefly of Coypel. A sunstroke (1726) resulted in intermittent imbecility, and the talented and hardworking master — the last of the pure-line men — had thirteen years of such madness before his death. He kept on engraving, however, until the end. He was a member of the Academic de Peinture and the king assigned him apartments in the Louvre. Among his pupils were Francois and Jacques Ch^reau and Simon Valine.

The following are among his principal works: "Presentation of the Virgin", after Le Brun; "Pre- sentation in the Temple'', after L. Boullongne; por- traits of the Archbishop of Cambrai (after Vivien) ; and Ren6 Pucelle, his last work, after Rigaud.

Claude Drevet, a French engraver, b. at Lyons, 1705; d. in Paris, 1782. He was a nephew and pupil of Pierre the Elder and at first followed the traditions ot the two Pierres, forming about him a coterie of en- gravers who endeavoured to keep alive their great traditions. Later he became very hard and precise with the graver, and his work lost all its artistic and painter-like quality, everything being sacrificed for a brilliant tcchnic. Nevertheless, many of his plates possess great charm and tldicacy. Claude seemed indifferent to his art and produced but little compared with the other members of the family. When Pierre-

Imbert died, his rooms in the Louvre were given to Claude, who proceeded to squander nearly all the money left him by his uncle and his cousin.

He engraved portraits of Henri Oswald, Cardinal d'Auvergne, after Rigaud, and of De Vintimille, Arch- bishop of Paris, also after Rigaud.

FiBMiN-DiDOT. Les Drevet (Paris, 1S76); P\wlowsky, Cata- logue raisonne; DiLKE, French Engravers and Draughtsmen of the XVIIl Century (London, 1902); Lippman, Engraving and Etch- ing (New York, 1906); Pernetty, Les Lyonnais dignes de

' . II. 139. Leigh Hunt.

Drexel, Francis Anthony, banker, b. at Philadel- phia, U. S. A., 20 June, 1824; d. there 15 Feb., 1885. He was the oldest son of Francis Martin Drexel, a Tyrolese by birth, and by profession a portrait-painter and musician, who in 1837 turned his attention to finance, and founded the house of Drexel & Co. in Philadelphia with connexions with the firms of J. S. Morgan & Co. of New York, and Drexel, Harjes & Co. of Paris. Associated with him were his sons Francis Anthony, Anthony Joseph, and Joseph Will- iam. Francis Anthony began his financial career at the age of thirteen, and at his father's death in 1863 became the senior member of the firm, and was recognized as one of America's foremost financiers. The house of Drexel & Co. was in the public estima- tion unalterably associated with the strictest integrity and the most broadminded liberality. At critical periods it came generously to the support of the pub- lic credit. Francis A. Drexel's growing fortune did not alienate him from religion or harden his heart against the appeals of charity. He remained to the end poor in spirit, and regarded his vast wealth merely as a Divinely lent instrument for doing good. In his exercises of piety and his copious distribution of charities, he was ably seconded by his second wife, Emma Bouvier Drexel, who died before him. His children by his first wife, who was Hannah J. Langs- troth, were Elizabeth, who died 26 September, 1890, and was the wife of Walter George Smith, of Phila- delphia, and Katharine, who entered religion and founded the congregation of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Coloured People (see Catholic Ency- clopedia, II, p. 599). Another daughter, Louise, wife of Edward Morrell, was the only child of his second marriage. In his will Mr. Di'exel followed the Biblical injunc- tion of bequeathing a tithe ($1,.500,- 000) of his great estate to religious and charitable pur- poses, with the fur- ther proviso that in case his daugh- ters should leave no issue, the entire estate should be Francis Anthony Drexel

distributed among the institutions specified in the will. His daughters continued to walk in the foot- steps of their father. Among their own benefactions, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Morrell founded the St. Francis Industrial School at Eddington, Pennsylvania. The Francis A. Drexel Chair of Moral Theology in the Catholic University of America was founded by his daughters in honour of Mr. Drexel.

James F. Loughlin.

Drey, Johann Sebastian von, professorof theology at the University of Tubingen, b. 16 Oct., 1777, at