Hans HEYSEN
Germany 1877 – Australia 1968
Australia from 1884; Europe, England 1899-1903

Springtime blue bells, Scotland 1902
oil on canvas
Frame 72.0 (h) x 67.0 (w) x 7.0 (d) cm
Private Collection

In May 1902 Heysen finished at the École des Beaux-Arts, travelled to London and then Edinburgh, and returned to Wemyss for another three months. He painted every day. The coast landscapes Meadowsweet, Scotland 1902 and Springtime blue bells, Scotland 1902 were produced during this period. Both paintings further develop a way of using the decorative qualities of foreground vegetation already seen in Heysen’s Adelaide landscape On Prescott’s Farm.

When Springtime blue bells was sent back for exhibition in Adelaide (along with more Paris scenes), critics described it as ‘... pregnant with art ... weird and mystic ... It indicates inspiration, and there is a suggestiveness about the whole painting which makes you want to look at it more than once.’[1]

© Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2008
Andrews, Hans Heysen, exhibition book, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2008, p 32

[1] Heysen letter to Sydney Ure Smith, 14 September (no year), Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, MLMSS 31/4