Francis Martin Drexel

Francis Martin Drexel (April 7, 1792 – June 5, 1863) was a Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, United States) banker and artist. He was the father of Anthony Joseph Drexel, the founder of Drexel University and the grandfather of Saint Katherine Drexel. Early life Franz Martin Drexel was born April 7, 1792, the eldest son of Franz Josef Drexel and Magdalena Wilhelm, in Dornbirn, in the Austrian Vorarlberg, not far from the Swiss border. His father was a successful merchant with business associates in both Switzerland and Italy. In 1803, Francis was sent to study Italian and French at a Catholic convent school In Italy. Drexel would eventually become conversant in five languages. He returned two years later and was apprenticed to a painter in a nearby village. When Napoleon invaded Austria, in order to escape conscription, and with help from his father, he crossed the Rhine into Switzerland. He remained there for about five years, painting portraits, houses, and signs to support himself. In 1812, he returned to the Tyrol incognito. Conscription was still in force, so he went to Bern and continued his study of painting. Career In May 1817, Drexel took a ship from Amsterdam on the John of Baltimore, headed for Philadelphia, where he opened a studio and found work as an art instructor at Bazeley's Female Academy. A popular portrait painter, his work was frequently shown at the Philadelphia based Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts annual exhibitions.