Francis de Erdely ( Hungarian: Erdélyi Ferenc) (May 3, 1904 – November 28, 1959) was a Hungarian-American artist who was renowned in Europe and the United States for his powerful figure paintings and drawings as well as for his teaching abilities.

Biography

Francis De Erdely was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary in 1904. De Erdely first studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Budapest (1919–1924), as well as the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the centre of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal aca ...

(Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando) in Madrid and the prestigious Sorbonne and Ecole du Louvre in Paris. De Erdely's technical abilities, brushwork, and composition were based in European classicism. Politics began to inform his work when Fascism began to gain ground in Europe. As De Erdely's career developed, he became less focused on history painting and the themes of classical Antiquity. Subjects surrounding war, suffering, and human strength became present. De Erdely immigrated to the United States in 1939. Living in New York and Chicago initially, he was hired to paint portrait of wealthy patrons. He also painted images of the American Scene. It was after his move to Los Angeles, when his mature work developed and he established himself as an American artist. He is best known for his figure-based paintings done in Los Angeles during the 1940s and 1950s of immigrants, laborers, dancers, and social outsiders. It has been argued that this period of his work relate directly to De Erdely's own experience as an immigrant in a new country.

Collections

* Brussels Moderne, Brussels, Belgium *

Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp ( Dutch: ''Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen''; KMSKA) is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium, founded in 1810, that houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth to t ...

, Antwerp, Belgium *

Butler Institute of American Art The Butler Institute of American Art (BIAA), located on Wick Avenue in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, was the first museum dedicated exclusively to American art. Established by local industrialist and philanthropist Joseph G. Butler, Jr., the ...

, Youngstown, Ohio, United States * Colorado Springs Fine Arts, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States *

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art is a former art museum in Washington, D.C., that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Founded in 1869 by philanthropist William Wilson Corco ...

, Washington, D.C., United States * De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California, United States *

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

, Denver, Colorado, United States *

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

, Detroit, Michigan, United States *

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. FAMSF's combined attendance was 1,1 ...

, California, United States *

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, Los Angeles, California, United States *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, New York, New York, United States *

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia * Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Utah, United States * Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, California, United States * Pasadena Art Institute, Pasadena, California, United States *

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States * Seattle Museum of Art, Seattle, Washington, United States *

Springville Museum of Art The Springville Museum of Art in Springville, Utah, United States is the oldest museum for the visual fine arts in Utah. In 1986, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As of 2022, the museum's director is Emily Lars ...

, Springville, Utah, United States *

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

Fisher Gallery, California, United States *

Laguna Art Museum The Laguna Art Museum (LAM) is a museum located in Laguna Beach, California, on Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway. LAM exclusively features California art and is the oldest cultural institution in the area. It has been kno ...

, Laguna, California, United States *

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington and Arabella Huntington in San Marino, California, United State ...

, San Marino, United States

Exhibitions

* 1925: Budapest, Hungary * 1939: Hungarian Relief Library, New York, New York, United States * 1940–1944:

, Detroit, Michigan, United States * 1940: De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California, United States * 1940:

Santa Barbara Museum of Art The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) is an art museum located in downtown Santa Barbara, California. Founded in 1941, it is home to both permanent and special collections, the former of which includes Asian art, Asian, Visual arts of the United ...

, Santa Barbara, California, United States * 1941:

, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States * 1942: Vancouver Museum of Fine Art * 1942–1945:

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, Chicago, Illinois, United States * 1942–1943: The Scarab Club, Detroit, Michigan, United States * 1943:

, Washington, D.C., United States * 1943–1944: De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California, United States * 1945–1946:

, Denver, Colorado, United States * 1945–1946: San Francisco Fine Arts Association, California, United States * 1946: Pasadena School of Arts, Pasadena, California, United States * 1950: Laguna Beach Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, California, United States * 1950: Crocker, Sacramento, California, United States * 1950:

Haggin Museum The Haggin Museum is an art museum and local history museum in Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, located in the city's Victory Park. The museum opened in 1931. Its art collection includes works by European painters Jean Béraud, Rosa Bon ...

, Stockton, California, United States * 1950: Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, California, United States * 1959–1960: Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California, United States * 1960:

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

, Seattle, Washington, United States * 1960:

, Los Angeles, California, United States * 2022:

, Laguna Beach, California, United States

Awards

* 1925 – Szinyei-Merse Grand Prize, Budapest, Hungary * 1929 – Triennial Bronze Medal, Ghent, Belgium * 1940–1944 – Detroit Art Institute (prizes) * 1942 – Scarab Club,

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, Michigan (medal) * 1943 – Scarab Club, Detroit, Michigan (medal) * 1946 – Scarab Club, Detroit, Michigan (prize) * 1946 – Pasadena School of Arts (prize) * 1947–1951 – Oakland Art Gallery (prizes) * 1949 – Arizona State Fair (award) * 1954 – Audubon Association (medal)

References

External links

*
Francis de Erdely papers, 1925-1968

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...