Friedrich Julius Georg Dury | |
|---|---|
 Self-portrait, 1860 | |
| Born | March 15, 1817 |
| Died | December 2, 1894 (aged 77) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Resting place | Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville |
| Known for | Portrait painting |
| Notable work | Sarah Polk's White House Portrait. Portrait of Lola Montez |
| Patron(s) | Ludwig I of Bavaria |
Friedrich Julius Georg Dury (1817–1894) was a well-regarded Bavarian-American portrait artist who worked in both oil and pastel. He was born and educated in Würzburg, Bavaria, and Munich, where he began his career as an artist.
In 1849, after the Revolutions of 1848, Dury emigrated to the United States with his sister and their respective spouses, whom they had married shortly before departure. He became a bespoke gallery artist in Nashville, Tennessee. He and his family struggled during the American Civil War because Nashville was occupied by Union troops for three years. Soldiers or officers were often billeted with townspeople, and some took the families' food.
After the war, the Tennessee state legislature commissioned several portraits from Dury, including of the late President Abraham Lincoln (assassinated in 1865) and his successor Andrew Johnson, the former vice- president. An 1870 review in a Nashville newspaper said Dury was an artist "who has caught his inspiration from the old masters".[1] Dury typically did not sign his paintings.
Dury's work is on display in the US White House, the National Portrait Gallery, the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, and the Tennessee State Museum.
- ^ "A Fine Work of Art". The Nashville Union and American. Nashville, Tennessee. July 7, 1870. p. 1. Retrieved November 4, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.