Frank Arthur Nankivell
Influential political cartoonist and illustrator
Frank Arthur Nankivell was an Australian artist and political cartoonist, known for his caricatures in publications such as Puck. Nankivell was born to John and Annie Nankivell in Maldon, northwest of Castlemaine, Victoria in April, 1869. He was a book illustrator in New York circles of the 1910s and 1920s on such publications as Puck, which was America's first successful humor magazine. Nankivell studied art at Wesley College, Melbourne. He later travelled to Japan and earned a living as a cartoonist in Tokyo where he made the acquaintance of Rakuten Kitazawa, who later became father of the Japanese comic art now known as manga. Nankivell left Japan in 1894 to study art in San Francisco. He left for New York in 1896 where he worked on magazines as a popular and influential cartoonist devoting his work mainly to social subjects and to state and federal political issues. Nankivell remained in New York until 1913. Nankivell later became a member of the New York Circumnavigators Club, which was open only to those who had circumnavigated the globe longitudinally, by land and/or sea. Other members included Ernest Hemingway and Harry Houdini.
Artworks by this artist (84 total)
- Exercising the mounts 1907
- ‘Oh, Mother, may I go out to swim’ 1906
- The college world 1906
- Puck fourth of July 1905
- Like a Chinese play, it goes on forever 1909
- The safety-valve 1909
- Puck Christmas 1904
- Setting ’em off 1907
- Puck July 4th 1904
- The infant Hercules and the Standard Oil serpents 1906
- Right in style 1912
- Christmas Puck 1906
- A message from Mars 1901
- Uncle John 1906
- Evidently newly wed 1901
- Father will shoot them off 1908
- Uncle Sam’s boys, anglicized 1906
- One phase of it 1907
- Not so bad 1899
- Puck Easter 1899