Landscape and legend

The word iconic gets bandied about endlessly in the lexicon of hyperbole. But we can safely say Sir Hans Heysen rates as the real deal when it comes to the cream of Australian landscape artists. Similarly, the expression, humble beginnings, is all-too-often attributed to anyone who rose from modest means to some degree of notoriety. Here again, Hans fills the bill. In fact, Hans, his parents and siblings became adept at changing addresses at two in the morning in order to evade their back rent.

Hans, perhaps as a result of his parents’ necessary frugality, learned to paint for both pleasure and profit to the point where his successful 1912 solo exhibition in Melbourne netted sales in excess of £1500