J. J. Lankes
Encyclopedia
Julius John Lankes was an illustrator
, a woodcut
print artist
, author
, and college professor
.
to parents of German heritage. His father worked in a lumber mill and brought home small scraps of wood. “It was like getting a daily present,” wrote Lankes, who played with and learned about all the different kinds of wood, as a child. He graduated from the Buffalo Commercial and Electro-Mechanical Institute in 1902 and worked as a draftsman
specializing in patent drawing
s before continuing his art studies at the Art Students’ League of Buffalo and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
.
medium and had studios, at various times, in both Gardenville, New York and Hilton Village
in Newport News, Virginia
. His works, numbering about thirteen hundred, helped elevate woodblock prints beyond illustrations in commercial productions to recognition as a fine art. His work was heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement
and by William Morris
.
He illustrated works for many notable authors, including American
poet Robert Frost
, American
author Sherwood Anderson
, and British
author Beatrix Potter
. Lankes maintained lifelong friendships and collaborations with both Robert Frost and Sherwood Anderson.
Major public collections of his woodcut prints are located at Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College
; the Mead Art Museum
, Amherst College
; the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, New York; the Burchfield-Penney Art Center
, Buffalo State College
; the Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia
; the Muscarelle Museum of Art
, College of William and Mary
, Williamsburg, Virginia
; and the Crocker Art Museum
, Sacramento, California
. Other collections include the Congressional Library in D.C.; Newark Public Library in New Jersey; Marsh Museum at University of Richmond, Virginia and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Series is at the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg and the Doremus Series, designed by Rockwell Kent and engraved by J.J.Lankes, is at Plattsburgh State University
in New York.
Lankes received his first opportunity as an illustrator
in the woodcut medium from Max Eastman
, who edited The Liberator. Lankes found many kindred spirits at the Liberator and was even listed on the masthead
as a contributing editor. Like many leftists
in the early 20th century, his views grew more moderate later on but he continued to have a great disdain for the bourgeoisie
and a deep respect for the working class, which is always evident in his art.
It was Lankes' wife's idea to move to Virginia. Lankes would have a love-hate relationship with the American South for the rest of his life but the move proved to be very fruitful for inspiration and new friends and colleagues. In 1930, Lankes and his Hilton Village neighbor Eager Wood of the Virginia Press, collaborated on Virginia Woodcuts, a folio-sized
, limited edition volume of 25 prints of rural Virginia scenes.
Lankes wrote and illustrated A Woodcut Manual, published by Henry Holt in 1932. It was written in a very folksy style and well-received by the art and literary community, though not a commercial success in its time. In 2006, The University of Tampa
published a new edition of this book with selected letters and other writings, edited by Welford Dunaway
Taylor.
Lankes wrote a great many letters, collections of which may be found in Buffalo and Erie County Library, Dartmouth College, Amherst (College and town library), Middlebury College, and Wisconsin State Library. A substantial archive of Lankes' writings are with Professor Taylor at the University of Richmond.
In 1933 Lankes was persuaded by Frost to accept a position as visiting Professor at Wells College
in Aurora, New York
. He taught at Wells for seven years.
In 1940, Harper & Brothers published an edition of Thomas Gray
's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
, with thirty woodcut illustrations by Lankes and an introduction by Pulitzer prize-winning poet Robert P. T. Coffin
.
Lankes produced 41 woodcut renderings of Pennsylvania Dutch barns, some of which were published in the Journal of the American Insititute of Architects. A book was planned but never published, which was a great source of disappointment to Lankes, who considered these works to be his crowning achievement.
in 1943, where he remained until 1950. In 1951 Lankes moved to Durham, North Carolina. He suffered a debilitating stroke in 1959 and died on 22 April 1960 in Durham. J. J. Lankes was buried in Buffalo on 25 April 1960.
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, a woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
print artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and college professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
.
Early life and education
Lankes was born on August 31, 1884 in Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
to parents of German heritage. His father worked in a lumber mill and brought home small scraps of wood. “It was like getting a daily present,” wrote Lankes, who played with and learned about all the different kinds of wood, as a child. He graduated from the Buffalo Commercial and Electro-Mechanical Institute in 1902 and worked as a draftsman
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
specializing in patent drawing
Patent drawing
A patent application or patent may contain drawings, also called patent drawings, illustrating the invention, some of its embodiments , or the prior art...
s before continuing his art studies at the Art Students’ League of Buffalo and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
.
Artist
Lankes worked primarily in the woodcutWoodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
medium and had studios, at various times, in both Gardenville, New York and Hilton Village
Hilton Village
Hilton Village is a planned, English-village-style neighborhood in Newport News, Virginia. Recognized as a pioneering development in urban planning, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood was built between 1918 and 1921 in response to the need for housing...
in Newport News, Virginia
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
. His works, numbering about thirteen hundred, helped elevate woodblock prints beyond illustrations in commercial productions to recognition as a fine art. His work was heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
and by William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
.
He illustrated works for many notable authors, including American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet Robert Frost
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson was an American novelist and short story writer. His most enduring work is the short story sequence Winesburg, Ohio. Writers he has influenced include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, J. D. Salinger, and Amos Oz.-Early life:Anderson was born in Clyde, Ohio,...
, and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
. Lankes maintained lifelong friendships and collaborations with both Robert Frost and Sherwood Anderson.
Major public collections of his woodcut prints are located at Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
; the Mead Art Museum
Mead Art Museum
Mead Art Museum is an art museum associated with Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts and is a member of Museums10.The Mead Art Museum has a wide ranging collection of over 16,000 items, with a particular strength in American art, including notable works of the Hudson River School and woodcut...
, Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
; the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York; the Burchfield-Penney Art Center
Burchfield-Penney Art Center
The Burchfield Penney Art Center is located on the campus of Buffalo State College and was founded in 1966. Dedicated to the art and vision of Charles E. Burchfield and distinguished artists of Buffalo, Niagara and Western New York...
, Buffalo State College
Buffalo State College
The State University of New York College at Buffalo, referred to as Buffalo State College, often referred to colloquially as Buff State, is a public, liberal arts college in Buffalo, New York, United States and is part of the State University of New York. Buffalo State was founded in 1871 as the...
; the Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
; the Muscarelle Museum of Art
Muscarelle Museum of Art
The Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary is an art museum in Williamsburg, Virginia right on the College’s campus. It sits adjacent to the Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall on Jamestown Road. The museum was given to the College as a gift from alumni and friends and first opened its...
, College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
, Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
; and the Crocker Art Museum
Crocker Art Museum
The Crocker Art Museum is one of the leading arts institutions in California, and the longest continuously operating art museum in the West. Located in Sacramento, California, the Crocker has been an art innovator since 1885...
, Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
. Other collections include the Congressional Library in D.C.; Newark Public Library in New Jersey; Marsh Museum at University of Richmond, Virginia and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Series is at the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg and the Doremus Series, designed by Rockwell Kent and engraved by J.J.Lankes, is at Plattsburgh State University
State University of New York at Plattsburgh
The State University of New York at Plattsburgh is a four-year, public liberal arts college in Plattsburgh, New York. The college was founded in 1889 and opened in 1890. The college is currently part of the State University of New York system and is accredited by the Middle States Association of...
in New York.
Career
In 1914, Lankes married Edee Maria Bartlett. In 1915, his first child was born with three more to follow. Having a wife and family to support, he obtained work as foreman of the drafting room at Newton Arms, a rifle factory in Buffalo. In 1917, using a V-cutting tool intended for cross-hatching grips on gunstocks, and a piece of wood from an apple tree blown down by a storm, he cut his first woodblock titled “Flying Gosling.”Lankes received his first opportunity as an illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
in the woodcut medium from Max Eastman
Max Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes...
, who edited The Liberator. Lankes found many kindred spirits at the Liberator and was even listed on the masthead
Masthead (publishing)
The masthead is a list, published in a newspaper or magazine, of its staff. In some publications it names only the most senior individuals; in others, it may name many or all...
as a contributing editor. Like many leftists
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
in the early 20th century, his views grew more moderate later on but he continued to have a great disdain for the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
and a deep respect for the working class, which is always evident in his art.
It was Lankes' wife's idea to move to Virginia. Lankes would have a love-hate relationship with the American South for the rest of his life but the move proved to be very fruitful for inspiration and new friends and colleagues. In 1930, Lankes and his Hilton Village neighbor Eager Wood of the Virginia Press, collaborated on Virginia Woodcuts, a folio-sized
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
, limited edition volume of 25 prints of rural Virginia scenes.
Lankes wrote and illustrated A Woodcut Manual, published by Henry Holt in 1932. It was written in a very folksy style and well-received by the art and literary community, though not a commercial success in its time. In 2006, The University of Tampa
University of Tampa
The University of Tampa , is a private, co-educational university in Downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 2006, the University celebrated its 75th anniversary...
published a new edition of this book with selected letters and other writings, edited by Welford Dunaway
Taylor.
Lankes wrote a great many letters, collections of which may be found in Buffalo and Erie County Library, Dartmouth College, Amherst (College and town library), Middlebury College, and Wisconsin State Library. A substantial archive of Lankes' writings are with Professor Taylor at the University of Richmond.
In 1933 Lankes was persuaded by Frost to accept a position as visiting Professor at Wells College
Wells College
Wells College is a private coeducational liberal arts college located in Aurora, Cayuga County, New York, on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake. Initially an all-women's institution, Wells became a co-ed college in Fall 2005....
in Aurora, New York
Aurora, Cayuga County, New York
Aurora is a village and college town in Cayuga County, in the Town of Ledyard, north of Ithaca, New York, United States. The village had a population of 720 at the 2000 census, of which more than 400 were college students....
. He taught at Wells for seven years.
In 1940, Harper & Brothers published an edition of Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:...
's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem’s origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray’s thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742. Originally titled Stanza's Wrote in a Country...
, with thirty woodcut illustrations by Lankes and an introduction by Pulitzer prize-winning poet Robert P. T. Coffin
Robert P. T. Coffin
Robert Peter Tristram Coffin was a writer, poet and professor at Wells College and Bowdoin College . He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1936.-Life:...
.
Lankes produced 41 woodcut renderings of Pennsylvania Dutch barns, some of which were published in the Journal of the American Insititute of Architects. A book was planned but never published, which was a great source of disappointment to Lankes, who considered these works to be his crowning achievement.
Later life
Lankes joined the reproduction section, as head of technical illustrating, of the National Advisory Committee for AeronauticsNational Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and...
in 1943, where he remained until 1950. In 1951 Lankes moved to Durham, North Carolina. He suffered a debilitating stroke in 1959 and died on 22 April 1960 in Durham. J. J. Lankes was buried in Buffalo on 25 April 1960.
Published illustrations
Whitaker,Charles Harris Journal of the American Institute of Architects October 1924.#10, Volume 12 "Some Thoughts About Barns"External links
- J.J. Lankes, Wells Book Arts Center
- J.J. Lankes and Robert Frost
- http://tampabookartsstudio.blogspot.com/
- The Papers of J.J. Lankes in Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College