Heysen of Hahndorf by Colin Thiele - Hans Heysen HC/DJ Revised ed. (1976)

Before posting, I will place the dustjacket in archival quality removable plastic, enhancing the look and feel of the book while protecting the jacket.

THIS BIOGRAPHY OF SIR HANS HEYSEN has a scope as wide and colourful as one of his own great canvases of the Flinders Ranges. As told by Colin Thiele, it reads as fluently and often as dramatically as a powerful family novel, and is an intensely human account of the artist's life and times. Before writing the book, the author spent twelve months in research, including long periods with Sir Hans. who applauded the manuscript. The result is a finely-wrought picture of the artist, the man. and three generations of his close-knit family..

The story begins with the arrival of the Heysen family in South Australia in 1884. Their early struggles in a harsh colonial environment were slowly rewarded, and Hans, impelled by a strong but gentle genius, took the first steps towards greatness in art. An unusual offer by four Adelaide businessmen financed a study tour of Europe. and his letters home told of how it felt to be a poor young student in Paris at the turn of the century. When he returned to Australia, he opened a studio and conducted art classes. His students included his future wife, and some of the most moving pages in the book give a delicate account of his courtship and marriage-a glimpse into an idyllic past

which the author has recaptured with sensitive skill. The narrative then covers the central years of the artist's life, during which his maturing talent and increasing fame had a background of joyous domesticity. The road was not always smooth. He suffered odium and suspicion when national passions were inflamed during the First World War. endured tragedy and death in his own family circle. and was always open to artistic jealousies and criticism for the representational nature of his art. Despite this, he came to be acclaimed as the most characteristically Australian painter of his time, and his home and studio in the Adelaide Hills were visited by the great public figures of the day: governors, statesmen, diplomats, musicians, actors, singers, painters. Melba was his friend and patron; Lionel Lindsay his mentor and champion.

A pathfinder in more ways than one, Heysen's painting expeditions to the Flinders Ranges- which he was the first to discover in an artistic sense-opened up a new world and produced some of his finest work. This is a book which tells of the growth and ripening of a great talent, of family life and love and the sweep of one man's life across almost a century.