Puck Mid-Summer Number

Frank A. Nankivell's cover for Puck's Mid-Summer Number presents no satirical target—it is pure seasonal promotion. Within an Art Nouveau oval frame, a young woman in an extravagant pink ruffled gown and broad-brimmed bonnet sits at the edge of a golden pool, fishing rod in hand, expression dreamily self-satisfied. The composition carries no political argument; its purpose is to sell the issue by embodying fashionable leisure at its most decorative. Smaller vignettes in the corners suggest other summer pastimes. Nankivell, Australian-born and technically accomplished, uses the cover as an advertisement for Puck's companion "Summer Girl" supplement, price ten cents.