Nicholas Hornyansky (Hungarian/Canadian, 1896-1965) ARCA, OSA, CPE, FIAL, ACPS
‘Dundurn Castle’
aquatint
(image) 4 ¼” high x 5 ½” wide
(impression) 5” high x 6 3/16” wide
(frame) 9 3/8” high x 10 3/8” wide
Notes: Dundurn Castle is a historic neoclassical Regency mansion in Hamilton, Ontario, built by Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet and completed in 1835. Camilla, the Queen consort is a descendant of MacNab, the Premier of the united Province of Canada (1854-1856), and the Royal Patron of Dundurn Castle. Designed by Robert Charles Wetherall it is now designated a National Historic Site of Canada.
Markings: titled and signed in margins
Label Verso: Dundurn Castle / Tall and wide as it is the Dundurn Castle here shown retains an air of privacy in its spacious park setting at the top of York Street in Hamilton. It was built in 1835 by Sir Allan MacNab, one oft he most colourful figures in the history of Ontario. As a lawyer, a legislator, a soldier, and as a builder he left an unequalled record. In 1854 he became our prime minister, in 1837 by prompt and sturdy action he put the quietus on the Mackenzie Rebellion. For that he was knighted in 1838. Son of an officer on the staff of Governor John Graves Simcoe, he was born at Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1798. He died on August 8, 1862, and was buried at Dundurn. His body was later removed to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery where he sleeps in an unmarked grave. / Dundurn is a monument to MacNab’s princely tastes and inclinations. Inspection of the rooms indicates the skill of the true craftsman; particularly is this so in Sir Allan’s bedchamber where a magnificent walnut bed, carved by hands long since still, is on display. / The entrance hall floor is of imported Roman tile and tradition has it that weekly the surface was washed with skimmed milk in order that the tile might retain its soft patina. The marble of the fireplace was bought from overseas. / There are some seventy-two rooms in all, twenty-eight of them in the basement where the servants lived and had their dwelling quarters. After Sir Allan’s death Dundurn was purchased by a Southern lady but soon afterwards came into the possession of Senator Donald MacInnes who lived there until 1899 when the city bought it for the price of $50,000.00. It was opened as a museum on May 24th, 1900, and has had three curators, Mrs. Clementina Fessenden, founder of Empire Day; Mrs. Sillery, and for the last eighteen years, Mrs. J. N. Mundie, a descendant of Loyalist ancestors. ~ Louis Blake Duff
Condition: Excellent, 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 aquatint 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); Southern 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 (Antwerp); Hart House, U of T; The John Ross Robertson Collection, Toronto Public Library. Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp; Museum Moderne, Ghent, Antwerp; Dowager Queen Elizabeth, Belgium; Government 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 onward); 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 Institute 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)
