Albert John Hanson | Manly 1892 | SOLD
Manly 1892
Oil on canvas
21 x 41cm
Signed and dated lower left
Exhibited:
Royal Art Society NSW 1892
Catalogue 13
Price 5 gns
Title: Manly
Original frame
SOLD
A period piece of Australian Impressionism.
Albert John Hanson (1867-1914)
Painter, was born in Paddington, Sydney, on 28 September 1867 (according to his grand-daughter Joan Michell and his birth certificate – on 22 September according SMH notice and 1866 according McCulloch 1994, 1865 according Ingram), the first son of Albert George Hanson and Marie Ann, née Hill.
In 1889 Hanson exhibited at the 10th annual exhibition of the Art Society of NSW (later the Royal Art Society or RAS): see Sydney Mail 19 October 1889, 868, 875. The SMH (5 October 1889, 9) noted his watercolour Bray’s Bay was 'a cold and quiet thing’. He was awarded first prize for painting at the 1890 Art Society Exhibition; the SMH critic (12 July 1890, 5) noted that he had
distinguished himself by some pretty landscapes which have been thought worthy of a special prize. Mr. Hanson has evidently a fine perception and he displays capital technical knowledge. One or two of his skies are particularly praiseworthy.
Hanson also had ambitions as an architect and designed a house for Robert Louis Stevenson during the author’s visit to Sydney in 1890, although Stevenson finally built a less imposing residence (T. Ingram). At the Art Society’s 1891 exhibition, the Sydney Morning Herald (4 September 1891, 3) noted that among the works with 'claims to special attention as exceptionally good’ was In the Golden Gleam of a [sic] Summer Sun (signed and dated 1891, cat. No. 182 , 83 × 156 cm, now owned by Col Fullagar 2001) and was by Albert J. Hanson, 'a young artist who now makes his first success’.
Mr. Albert J Hanson, who has done well in No.157, “After the Toil of the Day”, comes quite to the front in “The Golden Gleam of a Summer Sun”. The subject furnishes a wide foreground of stubblefield whilst in the distance we see figures, a wagon, and horses, sheaves still standing like praying-hands in a corner of a field, and two workers, a man and a woman, in idle converse in the middle distance. All this – and the composition is good in the first place – is painted with force and sympathetic feeling, and the young Australian artist may be congratulated upon his work.
A line drawing was reproduced in the catalogue. Terry Ingram describes it as a respectable addition to a popular theme in Australian art – toil in the fields. The principle figures, a woman and man, pause from their labour in the heat of the summer sun. To the left other workers lift bales of hay onto a wagon and in the far right a village can be observed. The high horizon line and the spindly grass in the foreground leading the eye into the composition invoke the work of the Heidelberg School painters. According to Ingram, the painting could easily have been a candidate for the watershed Golden Summers exhibition that toured Australian public galleries in 1989.
Contemporary reviewers were even more glowing. The Bulletin critic (12 September 1891, 20) declared: 'The most striking picture in the room is, in the opinion of the writer, Albert J. Hanson’s “In the golden gleam of a summer sun”.’ The Illustrated Sydney News of 12 September 1891, 11, commented on the painting in the Art Society of NSW Exhibition: 'Mr. Hanson’s “Cornfield” in which a girl and a young man are exchanging some words (vows, perhaps), at the close of their day’s work, shows an advance on previous efforts by this artist, whose smaller works are also worthy of notice.’ Christie’s auctioned the painting, catalogued by David Thomas as The Harvest , at Sydney on 17 August 1999 (lot 77) and identified as one of Hanson’s English works: 'This is confirmed by the costumes of the harvest workers and the spire of the village church in the background’. Subsequent research by the buyer Col Fullagar, however, showed that Hanson was still in Sydney in 1891 and could not have left for England until 1892 {he did a drawing of fellow artist Percy Spence in January 1892 (ML) – although Spence was also in England later}. Moreover, Hanson showed studies of the Richmond NSW area at an exhibition held in 1891 by H.C. Callan, a Sydney dealer, according to Fullagar.
The Herald 's second notice of the Art Society’s exhibition (5 September 1891, 5) commented that 'Mr. Albert J. Hanson, who furnishes a sympathetic piece of work in “Beneath the Willows,” is even better represented in No.47, “In the Orchard”. In its review of the year’s art (31 December 1891, 4), it noted: 'The Art Society’s Annual Exhibition…reached a high average excellence, and was of greater interest than in 1890, inasmuch as it included five or six first rate works. Mrs. Mary Stoddard , Miss Lilla P. Creed , and Messrs … Albert J. Hanson… were amongst those who especially distinguished themselves.’ In the 1891 competition held by the National Gallery of NSW for watercolours illustrating 'Picturesque NSW’, the ISN (5 December 1891, p.12) noted: 'Mr. Hanson’s “Billabong on the Tumut” does him great credit. Some rushes in marshy ground from the right foreground; between them and the wooded banks opposite lies the river, over which some cattle are crossing, while Mt. Talbingo makes an effective background. The second view of Tumut also deserves praise.’
Hanson was in England in 1892 and showed both English and Australian landscapes with the Royal Society of British Artists that year. He continued to exhibit with the society for the next two years and was elected a member. He also sent back watercolours to the Art Society exhibitions. Two of 1892 were much admired, as the Sydney Morning Herald reported: 'In the water-colour section two of the best pictures (by Mr Hanson and by Mr Bevan [ Edward Bevan ]) have been purchased by the trustees of the Art Gallery’ ( SMH 2 September 1892, 2: info. Ingrid Anderson). The following day (3 September 1892, 6), the Herald commented:
There are, however, two paintings [watercolours] of supreme merit. The first of these, from the brush of Mr. Albert J. Hanson, the young artist now pursuing his studies in Europe, has been purchased for the Art Gallery. “The Low Lispings of the Silvery Sea” is the jingling title of this beautiful work (No.206), which discloses a view of waves rippling greenly upon a shore of sand and rocks, beneath a dull grey sky. The picture has atmosphere and is full of feeling.
The Bulletin critic (10 September 1892, 5) also thought purchase of the two was 'perhaps the best choice that could have been made’. The Low Lispings of the Silvery Sea was reviewed and reproduced in the Illustrated Sydney News on 10 September 1892, 6-7, and included in the loan collection of paintings exhibited by the AGNSW Trustees at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the Chicago World’s Fair (see revised catalogue: NSW section, 402-10). He also showed paintings at London’s Royal Academy, Royal Institute and Royal Institute of Oil Painters (David Thomas, lot 77, Christie’s catalogue 17-18 August 1999).
The Illustrated Sydney News accompanied its review of the 1893 Art Society of NSW Exhibition (2 September 1893, 3) with a sketch of Hanson’s Nature in Silence bade the World Repose (cat 234), and the following day (p.4) commented: 'With Albert J. Hanson and Minns we divide the “honours” for watercolours’. The Bulletin (9 September 1893, 14) was also fulsome:
How marvellously Albert Hanson has improved since he began his European studies. His method is a complete antithesis to Streeton’s, and he appears to systematically adopt a sombre tone. Of his two oil paintings, the better is that entitled “Nature in Silence bade the World Repose” (234), a truly poetical picture representing an English river by-wash in twilight… [also did] “The Mirthful Day of the Mightly Sea” (165)…
This portion of the show [watercolours] is indeed only raised above mediocrity by the presence of a charming series of English sketches sent out by Albert Hanson. Of these the most successful is a dainty sketch of a cottage-farm, Surrey (85) in which the red brick house and the flower-garden, with geese in the foreground, are treated with extreme skill and delicacy.
A photo-engraving accompanied a discussion of his success in England in the ISN (17 June 1893, 7: see file) and on 2 September 1893, 3, when the ISN praised his oils and watercolours in a critique of the 14th annual Art Society exhibition, an engraving of Nature in Silence bade the World Repose was featured on page 1. The SMH (28 September 1894, 3) included Kynance Cove among the 10 best works in the 1894 Art Society exhibition, noting that Hanson had also had a work in the previous year’s selection. The Herald 's 'Second Notice’ of the Art Society exhibition (29 September 1894, p.7) stated:
In “Kynance Cove – South Cornwall” (315), Mr. Albert J. Hanson furnished one of the several fine works which will make this year’s exhibition memorable. The glorious colouring of the calm blue sea that ripples at the foot of gigantic rocks, and the idea of freedom, space and irregularity which pervades the whole – and in which the myriad white-winged sea-fowl play their part – win acceptance for “Kynance Cove.”
The water-colour section…owes such strength as it possesses chiefly to Messrs. Minns, Ashton, Spong and Hanson. Mr. Albert J. Hanson sends nine pictures. Amongst these will be noticed several little works in the style which was so admired last year – as in “Church, Amberley, Sussex” (92), at close of day, or “On the Surrey Downs” (147), in which the minutest details are wrought with a certain breadth of effect. In this way the apparent extent of the distance in 147 is achieved. Mr. Hanson’s more important water-colours are “And All was Silence save the Seabird’s Cry”(107)…[and] “The South End of Lake George” (152)… more English than Australian in its effect.
Hanson sent more 'charmingly idyllic drawings of country villages’ to the 1894 Art Society Exhibition ( Bulletin 6 October 1894, 8). In 1895, still from England, he sent 'some charming bits of rustic scenery tenderly painted’ in watercolour ( SMH 28 September 1895, 7), including An Idyll – mermaids in a sheltered cavern of the sea whose 'tame domestic faces’, however, were thought to have accorded 'little with their finny extremities’ – and 'a softly painted seascape, and the dark interior of a country smithy’ entitled The Blacksmith . The Bulletin (5 October 1895, p.20) thought this was the first time Hanson had appeared as a figure painter, but still preferred the 'English country subjects – perfect gems of their kind – in addition to an exquisitely painted coast scene, full of tender greys and browns, “The Seabirds’ Cry – the Music of the Sea”.’
In 1896, the SMH noted (10 October 1896, 7) that the Art Society’s exhibition had 'the advantage…of the return from England of Messrs. Percy Spence and Albert J. Hanson’.
Mr. Albert J. Hanson’s contributions form one of the mainstays of the watercolour section. “The Close of Day” (no. 144) is a tenderly treated idyllic scene – the sky faintly suffused with hues of rose and purple, a shepherd driving home his sheep among the grassy edge of some old chalk-pit, and all dimly revealed in the sleepy dusk. The trustees also purchased the delicately softly coloured “Maiden Meditiation” (no.173), the head of a girl who gazes upwards. Mr. Hanson shows several charming bits of English landscape, in nearly all of which there is poetry, and his “Cidermaking in Herefordshire” (no.202) is a good piece of work with well-drawn figures. Mr. Hanson’s oil painting, “An Idyll” (no.63) is an enlargement from a smaller watercolour exhibited last year. It is an imaginative work, showing mermaids feeding seagulls as they lounge within the shelter of a cave facing the sea, with cliffs beyond flooded with crimson and purple light. This forms a clever composition, though the mermaids have a tame domesticated look, which can only be excused on the supposition that the artist painted them from life.
The AGNSW purchased The Close of Day for £52 10s and Maiden Meditation for £21.
By 1896 Hanson was a member of the Council of the Art Society. In 1897 he had a solo exhibition of pictures and sketches in his Bridge Street studio 'full of examples of his dexterous art as a colourist’, stated the Bulletin (29 May 1897, Red Page):
His pleasant little pieces such as “The Land of Egypt” and “In the Gulf of Suez” seem to have achieved exactly the right quality of light and atmosphere. Through all Mr. Hanson’s work indeed, runs a vein of natural charm which needs only a little addition of intensity and power to make his pictures really fine. And his black-and-white work is quite admirable.
The black and white work included 'ingeniously designed book plates’, which were also shown at the Art Society’s exhibition later in the year, along with several of these paintings. (Hanson was a member of the Art Society’s hanging committee that year.) On 25 August 1897, 7, the Herald reported:
Some of the leading painters are now receiving visitors… Mr. Albert J. Hanson received many visitors in his Bridge-street studio yesterday, where he had on view several paintings which will probably figure prominently at the Art Society’s Show. Mr. Hanson has painted “A Station Smithy”, a fine landscape with winding stream in the middle distance, and a beautiful harvesting scene, the last few sheaves still gilded by the declining rays of the sun, with the pale harvest moon rising slowly behind. Amongst Mr. Hanson’s watercolours are a rustic English scene, a nude figure with gossamy wings round which butterflies hover, mermaids at talk in ocean depths, and several landscape subjects.
The Herald 's 'First Notice’ of the Art Society Exhibition (9 September 1897, 5) began:
At the opening of last year’s exhibition by the Art Society an advance was noticeable, which was partly due to the accession of strength gained by the arrival of Mr. Gordon Coutts, the return of Messrs. Hanson and Spence, and the importance of the intercolonial contributions… The first work catalogued is a landscape by Mr. Albert Hanson, a typical Australian view of grassy land and winding stream, the technical merit of which is due to the felicitous expression of a hazy atmosphere. Mr Hanson is quite at his best in his “Station Smithy” (no.19), the rough interior dimly lighted from the open door, and the blazing forge, the figures of a man at the bellows and of the smith with the glowing pickhead on the anvil full of life and character. “In the Mellow Season of the Year” (no.108) with the harvest moon rising above the stubble, and the last few sheaves gilded by the beams of the departing sun, is marked by poetic sentiment.
Its 'Second Notice’ (10 September 1897, 2) focused on the watercolour section of the exhibition, which 'derives its strength chiefly from Messrs. Lister, Hanson, Fullwood, and Spence who have all sent in work of distinguished excellence’.
Mr. Albert Hanson is well and numerously represented in this section. “Changing Paddocks” (no.199) is an important work illustrating the more sombre aspect of the Australian bush, with its blue-grey tones and lonely life. “At the Village Smithy” (no.206) is a charming old-world subject, remarkable for its suggestion of the soft, blurring effects of the tender English twilight. “Twilight with the Rising Moon” (no. 145) furnishes a little landscape half-hidden by the same {?} romantic veil. Mr. Hanson has also the courage needed to explore the regions of the fantastical. “The Bather’s Discovery” (no. 127), in which a little red-haired boy gazes down upon a sleeping mermaid, has value for the delicacy of the tones of the cavernous retreat, but the drawing of the mermaid is decidedly “fishy”. No.135 “Where the Butterfly Takes Wing”, is a sweet little picture of a nude, winged slyph, as ethereal in her grace as the gaudy insects that hover around her, or the rainbow… In “Under the Sea” (no.168), the effect of objects seen through intervening paces of clear green water is wonderfully well achieved… painter may be congratulated.
Hanson was included in the 1898 Australian Art in London show at Grosvenor House, was praised by the Pall Mall Gazette (reprinted SMH 12 May 1898, 2) and had the gratification of seeing his Among the Swamp Oaks among the few works sold. That year he was re-elected a member of the Art Society Council, serving 1898-1900. In 1903 he was again elected a member of the Art Society (now Royal Art Society) Council. In 1905 he won the AGNSW’s Wynne prize for landscape painting.
Albert Hanson married Frances Lanly Appleford at Burwood in 1896; they had several children. He died at his residence Buckthorpe, Stanton Rd, Haberfield on 11 July 1914 and was buried in Rookwood Cemetery Anglican Section C, grave no.1012 (death certificate no.10540/1914). An exhibition of his paintings was held at Anthony Horderns Fine Art Gallery in September-October 1914 (ML PAM file 759.29/H).
Written by Joan Kerr 1996
