‘Come Lovely and Soothing Death’ was 74 years old when it appeared in the zine. The author, Hannah Frank, a Jewish artist based in Glasgow, made it in 1949. A few days before her death, the artist received a letter from a friend which said: ‘Your art will live on forever’. And it does.
With thanks to Fiona Frank, the artist’s niece, who gave us permission to use the poster.
Hannah Frank (1908-2008) was a Jewish illustrator and sculptor born and based in Glasgow.
‘Come Lovely and Soothing Death’ was 74 years old when it appeared in the zine. The author, Hannah Frank, a Jewish artist based in Glasgow, made it in 1949. A few days before her death, the artist received a letter from a friend which said: ‘Your art will live on forever’. And it does.
With thanks to Fiona Frank, the artist’s niece, who gave us permission to use the poster.
Hannah Frank (1908-2008) was a Jewish illustrator and sculptor born and based in Glasgow.
Fiona Frank about Hannah Frank
Zine 9 - Honouring Our Ancestors
What’s your name, and how would you describe yourself?
I’m Fiona Frank, a niece and champion of the Glasgow artist Hannah Frank (1908-2008).
How did your family end up in Scotland?
My aunt Hannah Frank was born in Glasgow. Her father, my grandfather, was born in Valkomir (now Ukmerge) in present-day Lithuania, then Russia. At the time, thousands of Eastern European Jews left Russian territories to escape pogroms. My grandfather’s oldest sister was already in Scotland, so he followed her and settled here together with several other siblings at the end of the nineteenth century.
What mediums and formats did Hannah Frank use in her art?
My aunt used pen and ink, and she always worked in black and white. When she was around forty, she turned to sculpture and worked in clay or terracotta. Occasionally she had her work cast in bronze for exhibitions.
Did the family’s experience of migration influence her art?
My aunt used some Jewish themes in her art, particularly biblical themes. But it was mostly her own style and imagery - distinctive, long-haired, wraith-like women.
In your view, does your aunt’s migrant heritage influence how her art is seen in Scotland and the UK?
I think it’s well known that Hannah Frank is a Scottish Jewish artist. But she took inspiration and influence from British artists, such as the MacDonald sisters, Jessie King and Aubrey Beardsley. Most people associate her style with Scottish Art Nouveau, not with her Jewishness or migrant heritage.
What is her artwork in the zine about? What medium did she use and why?
Come Lovely and Soothing Death is an illustration for a poem. My aunt loved poetry, and her art often responded to texts by classical and contemporary poets and writers. Here she used her signature long-haired, cloaked figures to illustrate a line from Walt Whitman’s poem ‘When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d’, an elegy to President Abraham Lincoln after his assassination.
“Come lovely and soothing death
Undulate round the world, serenely
arriving, arriving
In the day, in the night, to all, to each,
Sooner or later, delicate death.”
What elements of your and your family’s cultural and ethnic heritage, if any, have you noticed in Scotland?
It’s great to see the physical signs of where the Jewish community once lived in the Gorbals and Govanhill. Some houses have nail holes outside, on the right-hand side of the doorposts. They are evidence that a Jewish family had lived there, because they mean that once there were ‘mezuzot’ (containers with a piece of parchment inscribed with words from the Jewish daily prayer) affixed to the walls.