Nicholas Hornyansky (Hungarian/Canadian, 1896-1965) ARCA, OSA, CPE, FIAL, ACPS
‘Fort Mississauga’ [Niagara on the Lake]
aquatint
(image): 4 ¼” high x 5 13/16” wide
(frame): 8” high x 9 ¼” 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: Good, Ready for Display
For Accuracy: The image is complete but shifted upwards in the mat to show the title and signature, due to this position there is even acid burn around the left and right, below the title and signature, and through the upper section of the image. It retains good colour, is framed behind glare-free glass and 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)
