Art Gallery of South Australia - Heysen Exhibition: Keith views this landmark exhibition in the Adelaide City region of South Australia
Hans Heysen is still South Australia's favourite painter 40 years after his death. He was the first to see the ancient river redgum as a symbol of endurance. He made them the stars of his paintings and helped us see them as stars of the bush. There's a new national exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia that shows why he is still one of Australia's greatest landscape painters.
It's a landmark exhibition at the in every way. Works have been borrowed from all over Australia, some from private collections so we've never them seen before.
Wilhelm Ernst Hans Franz Heysen was born in Hamburg, Germany on October 8th 1877. When he arrived here as a seven-year-old… little did he know he would become a household name in his adopted home.
For exhibition Curator, Rebecca Andrews it's been an enlightening journey through the great man's life.
Rebecca Andrews, Curator: "This is a landmark painting, it's titled the 'Wet Road' and it was painted when Heysen was just 16 years old. It's significant because it's the very first painting Heysen sold. It was bought by his teacher, James Ashton and was no doubt a real boost to the confidence of the young artist."
Painted near Magill looking towards the hills, the 'Wet Road' show's Hans had a fascination with the light from a very early age. He particularly loved the Adelaide Hills and spent his weekends and days off roaming the gullies painting masterpieces like the very English looking 'Horsnell's Gully'.
While we're familiar with a lot of his local works there are some surprises. Rebecca has assembled a collection of paintings from a little-known period of young Hans' life.
Curator, Rebecca Andrews: "As a student, Heysen spent 4 years in Europe and he spent his 4th and final year travelling through Italy, beginning with 6 weeks in Venice. He spent 6 weeks painting along the canals and along the bridges and produced some beautiful watercolours which are very German like in their quality…"
Again, he captures the play of light and manages to exploit the subtle colours beautifully. From pieces like 'Springtime bluebells', which he painted in Scotland in 1902, we can see just how formative his time in Europe really was.
He returned to Adelaide the next year and set up a studio in Curry Street and to make ends meet, began teaching. In between classes he produced one of his most famous works, 'Mystic Morn'.
Curator, Rebecca Andrews: "What's really interesting about Mystic Morn is that the saplings, as you'll probably notice are quite young, they are very thin long saplings which is in great contrast to the great gum tree paintings that follow this work about 4 years later in 1908 when Heysen first moves to Hahndorf he begins to produce monumental paintings of monumental gumtrees."
Success follows - enough for him to purchase 15 hectares of beautiful tree studded countryside near Hahndorf. The Cedars was where he and his beloved wife, Sallie brought up eight children. It was here in his chalet studio he continued to develop his style - and boldly promote the gumtree as a subject matter in its own right to rightly earn the mantle of 'portrait painter to the gumtree'.
Curator, Rebecca Andrews: "He lived and breathed what he was painting, he loved the landscape and the environment and he saved many gumtrees. In some ways we could call him one of Australia's first environmentalists. He would actually pay off the local council so they wouldn't cut down some of his favourite gumtrees."
In the paddocks around the Cedars you can literally lift the lid on his magnificent paintings and see the very trees that inspired them. The Gallery's exhibition ends with a final, majestic flourish - the compelling Flinders Ranges. In 1926, aged 50 he traveled to the Flinders for the first time only to be confronted with a challenging, foreign landscape.
Curator, Rebecca Andrews: "He found it incredibly difficult. In fact, his very first trip he couldn't paint a thing because he found the landscape too new. It was too new for him to comprehend and he didn't know how to tackle it."
One of his favourite parts of the Flinders was the Aroona Valley flanked by the ABC and appropriately named Heysen Range. He was introduced to all of this by Eddie Pumpa and his wife Rose who lived in a pug and pine house with verandas on both sides to frame the views.
The Pumpa's said the years spent here were the happiest years of their lives - and why not? The Aroona Valley is simply stunning. Things couldn't be better - Eddie knew the valley like the back of his hand; he owned a 1922 model Ford; his wife loved the company and was a great cook; and the house was smack bang in the middle of country that Heysen said showed the bones of nature laid bare."
Eddie and Heysen enjoyed many camping trips in the Flinders and his paintings marked another landmark in his astonishing career.
Curator, Rebecca Andrews: "It was the first time that the Australian public were really introduced to this arid inland Australia in art. Heysen, I believe was the very first artist to treat the Flinders Ranges as subject matter in its own right. In a way he sort of invented the Outback in Australian painting."
Knighted in 1959, Sir Hans Heysen died in 1968 aged 90. Forty years on he still holds a distinctive place in the history of Australian landscape art.
Heysen changed the way we see our landscape - our country and when you come and visit the exhibition it'll change the way you see him too.
The Exhibition is on now at the Art Gallery on North Terrace and runs until February 8 before touring nationally. It's open daily with regular guided tours.
The Cedars at Hahndorf is worth a visit too - just follow the signs to Heysen Road. It's open daily except Mondays. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
Hans Heysen Art Gallery of SA
North Terrace
Open daily $12 Adults, $10 Concession, Children under 16 free
Phone 8207 7000The Cedars
Heysen Road
Hahndorf
Open daily except Monday
Ph 83887277Published 16th November 2008
