Abraham Hankins
Abraham Hankins was born in Gamel, Russia in 1904. Hankins affinity for art was noted at an early age and he was sent to the United States in 1914 to live with his cousins. Lying about his lineage, he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I. Suffering a wounded left hand and a gassing in France, he was sent home to Philadelphia. Hankins attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, the Barnes Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts with Henry McCarter. After studying art in Philadelphia and exercising his lungs through singing, he was sent to Paris, by a patron, to study music. Hankins studied music seriously and painting became a hobby. His hobby soon proved to be his passion and he turned his studies to art at the Academy Julien and the privately under M. de Montholon. Coming back to the United States, his work was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the New York World's Fair, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Print Club, the Allentown Museum of Art, the Grand Salon in Paris, and many others. His work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Public Library, the Tel Aviv Museum, and the private collection of Dr. Barnes. Mr. Hankins died in 1963 at the age of 59. (Source: The Karlie Corporation website,
