Francis de Erdely

Francis de Erdely
Birth name Ferenc de Erdély
Born May 3, 1904
Budapest, Hungary
Died November 28, 1959
Los Angeles, California
Nationality Hungarian
Field Sculpture, Painting, Drawing
Training Royal Academy of Art, Budapest; Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, Madrid; Sorbonne, Paris
Movement Surrealism, Expressionism, Cubism, Modernism

Francis de Erdely (1904–1959) was renowned in Europe and the United States for his powerful figure paintings and drawings as well as for his teaching abilities.

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Biography

De Erdely studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Budapest, from 1919 to 1923, and later attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid and the Sorbonne in Paris. He first exhibited in 1924 in Madrid and Barcelona. De Erdely was commissioned to paint a portrait of Maria Cristina, who had been queen regent of Spain until 1902, and for that painting was awarded the Színyei-Merse Grand Prize in Budapest in 1925.

In the 1930s his art changed as he became increasingly troubled by the effect of war on humanity, a subject that would dominate much of his art for the rest of his life. Depicting the atrocities of war in his sketches and early paintings, the artist was eventually banished from Hungary by early Gestapo members. He arrived in the United States in 1939 and after a year in the East settled in Detroit. His solo exhibitions in New York and Detroit drew favorable comments from leading newspaper critics who extolled the vitality of his drawing and his ability to probe the depths of human experience. Although he painted landscapes, still lifes, and portraits, he became best known for his figure compositions.

In 1944, he moved to California and exhibited his war paintings and drawings, which were favorably compared with The Disasters of War etchings by Francisco Goya (1746–1828). In these poignant works de Erdely expressed emotion through meticulously refined, anatomical drawing.

De Erdely was dean of the Pasadena Art Institute School for two years, 1944-46. In 1948, he became faculty of the Jepson Art Institute in Los Angeles. His longest and most influential academic affiliation was with the University of Southern California, where he taught from 1945 until his death in 1959.

De Erdely was a principal figure in the West Coast Modernist school. As an instructor in the Los Angeles art community, he was highly respected and instrumental in training younger generations of artists. He is still considered one of the most influential artists to have worked on the West Coast. The artist Millard Sheets, said of de Erdely, "A master of our day, he draws or paints with equal spirit -- neither is the lesser in his estimate. He knows the importance of the arts to life. Through him, his students find new meaning and understanding of their profession. His work, his spirit and his enthusiams are a real contribution to our muddled world."

His work is in many collections around the world including the Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Victoria, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Carnegie.

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