DREXEL
159
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
