Nicholas Hornyansky (Hungarian/Canadian, 1896-1965)
‘DeCew Falls’ [Thorold, Ontario]
aquatint / etching, framed
(image) 5 ¼” high x 4” wide
(frame): 10 3/8” high x 8 3/8” wide
Label: ‘Decew’s Falls // Nature here is in one of her finest moods. A deep ravine with perpendicular sides; great trees growing at its lowest level and reaching up unsuccessfully trying to peer over the rim of the cup; the falls itself, delicate, silvery, in its age-old effort to drain the pool above, in its age-old effort to fill the pool below. That pool below, a brimming bowl worn round in the rock as the water fell for centuries from the dizzy level above. There is neither vista nor perspective in the views of the falls, in fact no man ever saw either falls or wooded ravine until he stood on the very brink, and there the beauty of it has to vie with the danger of it. From the foot of the ravine to the brim the rocks tower precariously seeming poised and ready to plunge to the bottom. // The DeCew family came to Canada in 1790, but the sons, John and Edward, were here two years earlier engaged in land surveys for the government. It was in one of his explorations that John came across the falls. That night, rolled in his blankets, he slept by the cataract. He wanted the falls and land about. One man’s right he purchased for an axe and an Indian blanket, and another’s for a gold doubloon. // The falls got its name from John DeCew and there he built a saw mill, a flax mill and a flour mill. Water power was especially precious in the days of the pioneer. The source of power that DeCew first used, now feeds one of Canada’s greatest power plants. // The flour mill still stands at the edge of the falls. It was grinding as long ago as 1801. Few old grist mills remain in our country-side to-day, although at one time they dotted the banks of almost every stream and river; one early census, indeed, listed over two thousand flour mills in Ontario. Their architecture, their methods and their contribution to early Canadian life are all but forgotten. ~ Courtesy, Louis Blake Duff”
Markings: titled in pencil lower left, ‘The DeCew House at DeCew’s Falls’; signed in pencil lower right, ‘Hornyansky’; original label verso
Condition: Excellent, Vintage
For Accuracy: a vintage item it may show expected light signs of age. The image is bright and crisp and the title and signature clear. It has been reframed well by a previous owner. Ready for Display.
Artist Biography: HORNYANSKY, Nicholas (Hungarian, Canadian, 1896-1965) ARCA, OSA, CPE, FIAL, ACPS. Born in Budapest, Hungary he worked as a colour mixer in the printing office of his father by the age of 12. STUDIED: Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest, under Prof. Ballo (portrait painting) and Prof. Pasteiner (aesthetics); Graduate Studies in Vienna, Munich, Antwerp and Paris; Simultaneous Colour aquating with Sagnelonge, Etching under Aba-Novak; edition studio in Brussels. INFLUENCES: Van Eyck; Breughel (The Younger); El Greco; Diego Rivera. WORKED: Belgium as an accomplished portrait painter; As part of the School of Hens with Franz Hens doing landscape painting; Worked with Franz henz. EXHIBITED: Grand Salon of Budapest (at age 16); London as a Portrait Painter; teacher Ontario College of Art (1945-1958); Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery (1967); Lionel Clarke Galleries Toronto (1967); The Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery and Museum of Fine Art, Owen Sound, Ontario (1968); California Printmakers; Philadelphia Society of Etchers; Northwest Printmakers (Seattle); American Academy of Design; Prairie Printmakers (Kansas); Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art; Society of American Etchers (New York); Souther Printmakers (Mount Airy); and the American Colour Print Society of Philadelphia.. COLLECTIONS: National Gallery of Canada; Royal Ontario Museum; National Print Collection, Library of Congress; New Mexico Museum (Santa Fe); Pennsylvania Museum of Art (Philadelphia); Musee Plantyn (Antqerp); Hart House, U of T; The John Ross Robertson Collection, Toronto Public Library. Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp; Museum Modene, Ghent, Antwerp; Dowage Queen Elizabeth, Belgium; Govenment Collection, London, England; Rothschild Collection, Trink Castle; Exhibited: Toronto (1929); Royal Canadian Academy; Ontario Society of Artists; Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers (1939 onwards); ASSOCIATIONS: Associate Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1943); Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers & Engravers (Pres. 194301958); American Color Print Society (Philadelphia), and the Ontario Society of Artists, Life Fellow, International Instutute of Arts and Letters. AWARDS: “Fifty Prints Of the Year,” American Federation of Art (1932, 1933); The G. A. Reid Silver Memorial Award (1955); Sterling Trust’s First Purchase Award (CPE); E. A. Klein First Purchase Award (Philadelphia)
