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JOSEPH DAY KNAP
(1875 - 1962)

Shortly after Joseph Day Knap was born in Scotdale, Pennsylvania in 1875, his family moved to New York City where he lived for the rest of his life. There was also a family home in Catskill, New York, on the Hudson River. Although Mr. Knap was lame all his life, he liked all sports and participated in many, such as golf, tennis and sailing. Duck hunting was his favorite pastime, however, and he hunted along the Hudson every fall from an early age until the late 1940's when he was no longer able.

His artwork was a natural outgrowth of this consuming interest, and although he had little formal art training, he worked at it constantly and developed his own technique. It was always a hobby, not a profession. His business was real estate. He married in 1910 and had one son who bears the same name.

In 1924, at the insistence of one of his hunting companions, he first exhibited his watercolors at the Ackerman Galleries in New York and met with almost immediate success.

Most of his work was done in watercolor, but he did make two sets of etchings. One of these sets was composed of five etchings entitled Marsh Pools, Dropping Down, Three Mallards, Rice Flats, and Scaling, They were limited to 100 signed proofs each, and the plates were destroyed.

Two sets of hand-colored prints were produced from his original paintings, and in the mid-1950's the American Artists group began using reproductions of his paintings on some of their Christmas cards. Over the years they have used over 15 different pictures and are still publishing repeats.

Mr. Knap's paintings were exhibited in many cities: New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Detroit, London, and others. They were also hung at the Grand Central Galleries and at The Museum of Natural History, both in New York.
Mr. Knap was extremely interested in Ducks Unlimited, Inc., and for some 20 years he donated an original painting to each annual dinner of the organization in New York. These were auctioned off with the proceeds going to D. U. to be used for waterfowl conservation purposes. He designed several of their membership certificates and his paintings were frequently used in their magazine.

Besides watercolors and etchings, Mr. Knap did some writing about duck hunting. His first published stories were in Outing magazine sometime between 1900 and 1910. Later he began to illustrate his stories with paintings or pen-and-ink drawings. Between 1926 and 1929 he did several covers and illustrated and wrote lead stories for Forest and Stream magazine. Spur magazine carried two of his paintings at one time.

Mr. Knap died in January 1962.