Hannah Frank Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1908 - d. 2008

Hannah Frank (23 August 1908 – 18 December 2008) was an artist and sculptor from Glasgow, Scotland. She was known for her art nouveau monochrome drawings until she decided to concentrate on sculpture in 1952.

Frank's Jewish parents both originated in Russia. Charles Fraiker, her father, came from Vilkomir in the Russian Pale of Settlement. After studying engineering at Leitz in Frankfurt, he immigrated to Scotland in 1905, and changed his name to Frank. Frank's mother was also born in Russia, as Miriam Lipctz. Having immigrated to Scotland, her family settled first in Edinburgh and then in Glasgow, where her parents ran a shop in Gorbals repairing cameras and optical devices.

The Franks lived in Glasgow's Gorbals district, where there was a strong Jewish immigrant community, first in Abbotsford Road and later in South Portland Street. When Frank was 13, the family moved to 72 Dixon Avenue, in Crosshill.

Frank attended Abbotsford Road Primary School followed by Strathbungo School and then Albert Road Academy. She obtained her Intermediate Certificate in 1924 (with subject passes in English, Maths, Latin, French, Science and Drawing). Her Higher Certificate followed in 1926 (English Literature and History, Latin, French and Art).

Frank was a student at the University of Glasgow in 1926–27, 1928–29 and 1929–30, taking courses in Latin, English, French, Moral Philosophy and Botany, living at home during her periods of study.[3] In the session 1927–28 she attended Skerry's College, studying German, where she was assessed as 'having a rare talent for languages'. Although she had to negotiate several re-sits, she graduated Master of Arts on 8 November 1930. Her formal essays, notebooks and examination scripts can be viewed in the University Archives.

While at the University, she participated in Glasgow University Jewish Society rambles and in its Zionist Branch meetings and studies. She contributed poems and illustrations to the Glasgow University Magazine. Its index for May 1929 reveals "Al Aaraaf" to be her pen name. The name was taken from a poem, by Edgar Allan Poe, about a star named by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe which "....shone as bright as Jupiter and Venus for a few nights and was never seen again."

By 1929, Gilbert Highet, the editor of GUM, 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.[4]

Frank continued to illustrate the GUM after graduating. After university, Frank qualified as a teacher at Jordanhill Teacher Training College.[2] She also undertook part-time study at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) for several years, taking the General Course in sessions 27/28 and 28/29, and courses in Design (29/30) and Drawing and Painting (31/32 and 32/33). Her teachers in the latter included Dugdale, Keppie, Richmond, Gauld, Whitelaw Hamilton, Anningbell, Forrester Wilson and Gray. She may also have taken Calligraphy.[6] Frank won the GSA evening class prize in 1929 for Sorcery (the drawing that was bought by the former editor of GUM) and the James McBey prize for wood engraving in 1934. She attended further courses at the GSA in 35/36, 37/39 and 43/66.

In 1939, Frank married Lionel Levy. Her works during the years of the World War II were reflective of the mood of the time, as a Jew, and with brothers in the British Army these years were long and dark, and there were many illustrations of grim, gaunt figures, reflecting the plight of the refugees. It was also during this period that Frank began clay modelling at the Glasgow School of Art under Paul Zunterstein and Benno Schotz who encouraged her work, and sculpture became her main passion