Who is Hans Heysen?

Answer 1

Sir (Hans) Wilhelm Ernst Hans Franz Heysen, OBE (8 October 1877-2 July 1968) was a well-known German Australian artist. He was particularly recognised for his watercolours of the Australian bush. He won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting a record nine times.

Wilhelm Ernst Hans Franz Heysen was born in Hamburg, Germany. He migrated to Adelaide in South Australia with his family in 1884 at the age of 7. As a young boy Heysen showed an early interest in art. At 14 he left school to work with a hardware merchant, later studying art during nights at Art School in his spare time.

In 1912 Hans Heysen had earned enough from his art to purchase a property called "The Cedars" near Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, which remained as his home until his death in 1968 aged 90.