McTear's
Lot 196
* HANNAH FRANK (SCOTTISH 1908 - 2008), RED FLOWERS (1929) lithograph on paper, signed and dated 2005 in pencil framed and under glass image size 37cm x 24.5cm, overall size 49cm x 34cm Comment: "Red Flowers" is the rarest of the Hannah Frank signed prints and so far as we can ascertain the only other example to have appeared at auction was sold by us in May 2012. Hannah recorded in her diary that she completed "Red Flowers" on Monday 27th May 1929 and that she sent it to Gilbert Highet on Wednesday 29th. Highet had been editor of GUM (Glasgow University Magazine) but by 1929 he had moved to Oxford and had become involved with The University News, in which he unsuccessfully attempted to have published two of Frank's illustrations, Red Flowers and Sorcery. The former was deemed to be of such high quality as to command a price that the University News could not afford. Highet himself bought Sorcery for 25/- and had it framed, remarking in correspondence with Frank, that he thought this drawing 'underpriced'. Somnia and Vana Spes were also enthusiastically received, but not published as the magazine, intended as a commercial venture, ran into publishing problems. "Red Flowers" was pubished in the Glasgow University Magazine in October 1929. It is documented as HFDS plate 47 on page 68 of "Hannah Frank, A Glasgow Glasgow Artist, Drawings & Sculpture " (second edition) and the original drawing is in the Hannah Frank Collection. Gilbert Highet was a Scottish American classicist, academic writer, intellectual critic, and literary historian (Gilbert Highet - Wikipedia). Note: Since McTear's first promoted Hannah Frank's spectacular work in 2011, the prices for her ever more rare signed prints have continued to rise with many current prices being more than five times higher than those achieved barely a decade ago. The latest UK auction record figure for a single signed lithograph was most recently achieved (twice) in our auction on 24th October 2021 but beaten in January 2023 in Edinburgh by a single print achieving £900 (hammer). Note 2: Hannah Frank was the last living link to the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau period. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow University in the 1920`s and her haunting pen and ink drawings have been exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy and Royal Glasgow Institute. A series of lithographs of some of her 90 drawings were made in the 1960's and again in the 1980's to satisfy the demand for her work after exhibitions in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Only a relatively few of these prints were hand signed (in pencil) by Hannah and it's understood that only one print was ever editioned (numbered) in a conventional manner. A major exhibition at the Royal Glasgow Institute in 2006 brought her work to a new generation of admirers and received considerable press coverage. Her work toured for five years in the UK and the USA culminating in an exhibition at Glasgow University which opened on her 100th birthday 23rd August 2008. After her death, she was awarded a posthumous Honorary Doctorate at Glasgow University and Glasgow City Council`s Lord Provost`s Award For Art (2009).
