Sir Hans Heysen OBE (1877–1968), one of Australia's best known landscape painters, arrived in Adelaide from his native Germany as a child. After studying at the Norwood Art School, he spent from 1899 to 1903 in Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian, Académie Calorossi and at the Académie des Beaux Arts. His first solo exhibition at Melbourne's Guild Hall in 1908 was a great success. His career grew steadily and he was able to purchase The Cedars, a 150-acre property near Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, where he lived for the rest of his life. Specialising in depictions of bush landscapes, Heysen's works capture his distinctive gum trees and reveal his fascination with the Australian light and sky. His popularity was such that Art in Australia ran two special Heysen issues in the 1920s and he won the Wynne Prize for landscape nine times between 1904 and 1932. In 1926 he first visited the Flinders Ranges and returned many times, making sketches, oils and watercolours of the rocky, dry landscape. Appointed to the Board of the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1940, he served for a record 28 years until his death in 1968. He is represented in all major Australian galleries, many regional galleries and private collections, and the British Museum.
