Puck Easter

A messenger boy holds out his book for a signature while a young woman in a yellow gown and broad plumed hat pauses to sign, her just-delivered Easter bonnet the errand at hand. The Puck sprite crouches at lower left in a blue suit, fussing over a stack of hatboxes and top hats, and faint white rabbits and eggs are sketched into the left margin. Frank Nankivell keeps the color light and springlike, the yellow dress glowing against a soft garden ground. PUCK and EASTER frame the scene. The gentle satire is of consumption, the elaborate machinery of getting a woman properly hatted for the holiday. Nankivell would draw many Puck covers; this early one already shows his easy line and his eye for a fashionable silhouette.