Born in Gomel, Russia, Hankins immigrated to the United States in 1914 and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum College of Art. During his career as a painter and printmaker, he exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Barnes Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Academy. The artist was known for his colorful abstracted compositions, such as this example, which suggests a geometric cityscape influenced by Cubism and Surrealism.