Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Frank Arthur Nankivell (18691959), [Walking in the Woods at Night], drypoint, c. 1910, signed in pencil lower right. Printed on a cream laid paper. In good condition, with margins (slight light staining). 10 x 8, the sheet 11 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches.

A fine impression of this great rarity; no edition is known or indicated. Printed with extensive burr on the drypoint work, and carefully placed plate tone darkening the woods, but wiped to highlight the house in the woods and the foreground.

This impression was exhibited in the International Fine Print Center New York (IPCNY) 2013 exhibit The Armory Show, commemorating the Centennial of the 1913 Armory Show in New York.

Nankivell was born in Australia, and studied art at Wesley College, Melbourne. He later travelled to Japan and earned a living as a cartoonist in Tokyo. Nankivell left Japan in 1894 (although his art shows a debt to Japonisme) to study art in San Francisco, and left for New Yorkin 1896 where he worked on magazines as a popular and influential cartoonist devoting his work mainly to social and political subjects. He became friendly with a number of artists including Walt Kuhn, who nominated him for membership in the Association of American Artists and Sculptors, and Arthur B. Davies, who employed Nankivell as a printer. Nankivell remained in New York until 1913. Nankivell later became a member of the New York CircumnavigatorsClub, which was open only to those who had circumnavigated the globe longitudinally, by land and/or sea. Other members included Ernest Hemingway and Harry Houdini. Nankivell had about 7 paintings, and an etching, in the landmark1913 Armory Show; several of his works are in the collection of The Smithsonian in Washington D.C.