Nicholas Hornyansky (Hungarian/Canadian, 1896-1965) ARCA, OSA, CPE, FIAL, ACPS
‘Fort Mississauga’ [Niagara on the Lake]
Aquatint / etching
(image): 4 1/8” high x 5 ½” wide
(frame): 8 3/8” high x 10 3/8” wide
Label: “Fort Mississauga. / Happy the nation that has no history! Happy the fort that never sent out a shot and never received one! Such is a Fort Mississauga at old Niagara. It looks out to see golf greens spread about it; to the east to see the town on whose edge it has stood for a century and a third; to the north to see the blue waters of Lake Ontario. // The Fort, with five-foot walls, was built following the War of 1812-14, largely from bricks brought from the ruins of the town which had been destroyed in the conflict. This accounts for the large number of broken bricks mortared into the walls. // William Kirby in his Canadian Idylls has thus described the Fort: Its walls thick as a feudal keep with loopholes slashed, Contain the wreck and ruin of the town. // The earthworks at Fort Mississauga are in the shape of a star and are of an earlier date than the Fort itself, having been thrown up probably in the early years of Simcoe’s governorship. // A restoration in relatively recent years put a cottage roof (the first one was flat) on the Fort, and dormer windows, making Mississauga undoubtedly the only fort in the world thus decorated.” ~ Louis Blake Duff
Markings: pencil title and signature in lower margins; 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)
