Frank P. Mahony

Who was Frank P. Mahony?

Francis P. Mahony, also known as Frank Mahony, was an Australian artist and member of the Dawn and Dusk Club.

Although christened "Francis Mahony", he later added 'Prout' and usually signed his work 'Frank P. Mahony'.

Mahony was born in Melbourne, third surviving child of Timothy Mahony, an Irish-born contractor, and his Cornish second wife Elizabeth, née Johns. Mahony was taken to Sydney when 10 years old and studied at the Academy of Art under Giulio Anivitti. Mahony's work was accepted by The Bulletin and he became known for his excellent drawings of horses. In 1889 his oil painting Rounding up a Straggler, was bought for the Art Gallery of New South Wales; in 1896 The Cry of the Mothers was also purchased. Mahony did a lot of illustrative work for the Picturesque Atlas of Australia, Victoria and its Metropolis, the Antipodean and other magazines of the period, and was also responsible for some of the illustrations to Barcroft Boake's Where the Dead Men Lie.

Mahony illustrated Australian writer Henry Lawson's While the Billy Boils and In the Days when the World was Wide. He also did the illustrations for Dot and the Kangaroo, written by Ethel Pedley.