Nicholas Hornyansky, 1896 - 1965
Born in Budapest, Nicholas Hornyansky worked from the age of twelve in his father's printing works. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and at the age of sixteen exhibited at the Grand Salon in Budapest. He continued his artistic studies in Vienna, Munich, Antwerp and Paris. Around 1919, he made his debut as a confirmed artist (as a landscape painter, portrait painter and engraver) in Belgium, where he stayed for 9 years, collaborating notably with the painter Hans Hens.
In 1927, Hornyansky married Joyce Sands, a renowned cellist, together they had two children.
In 1929, the family emigrated to Toronto. In spite of the Depression, the couple quickly found success. Hornyansky traveled all over Canada, creating pencil and ink drawings that he used as images in his etchings and aquatints. These images were then sold as prints and greeting cards. He’s best known for his aquatints of buildings and landscapes in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes but also worked in watercolor, ink and gouache.
Between 1931 and 1942, Hornyansky participated in all the Spring Salons of the Art Association of Montreal, (today the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts). He taught at the Ontario College of Art from 1945 to 1958.
He also exhibited regularly in art galleries in Toronto and some major cities in America (including New York in 1939 and Buenos Aires in 1953) as well as Europe.
Well known in the United States, his engraving, "Closing Time” was the first Canadian engraving to be incorporated into the permanent collection of prints of the Library of Congress.
He died on May 25, 1965 in Toronto.
Hornyansky exhibited with the RCA and the AAM, and a retrospective of his work was held at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in 1978.
Memberships
Royal Canadian Academy, the Ontario Society of Artists
Society of Canadian Etchers & Engravers, president, (1933-1963)
American Color Print Society in Philadelphia
Life Fellow of the International institute of Arts and Letters
Selected Collections
The Feckless Collection, Vancouver, BC
Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA