Christmas Puck

Two dark-haired women in colored gowns help Puck string decorations across a tall window, and the holly they have gathered spells out PUCK in leaves along the top sash. Frank Nankivell works in a flat, decorative manner here, panes of purple, gold, and green divided by heavy leading like stained glass, with snow drifting at the borders. CHRISTMAS 1907 runs across the base. The Art Nouveau styling, all sinuous line and inset color, shows how thoroughly poster design had reshaped the magazine cover by this date. Nankivell, Australian-born and trained partly in Japan, brought a graphic economy that suited the newer, flatter printing. Women, sprite, and lettering all belong to one ornamental scheme rather than to a scene observed from life.