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

On the Isle of Capri 1903
oil on canvas board
32.0 (h) x 41.5 (w) cm
The Cedars, The Hans Heysen Estate, Hahndorf

The final three months in Europe during the summer of 1903 were no doubt a welcome retreat after nearly four years of dedicated study. With the Roans in their cottage on Capri he was able to relax, but nevertheless continued to sketch, the spectacular island scenery providing a wealth of subjects. Here he produced one of the last paintings done in Europe, the delightful little oil On the Isle of Capri 1903. This painting of a Capri idyll was obviously inspired by landscape masterpieces he had seen on his travels—Claude Lorrain’s from the seventeenth century and Camille Corot’s from modern times. In June he made excursions to Sorrento and Amalfi and on 12 August Heysen left Capri for the Neapolitan mainland. To complete a Grand Tour of Italy, his last two weeks included visits to Pompeii, Castellammare and other places around Vesuvius. On 26 August he embarked on the Carlsruhe at Naples, leaving for Australia.

A letter to his mother summed up the past four years:

“What a deep longing I have come to have for Italy. I have often wondered how far I wouldactually have gone in Art if I hadn’t been able to travel ... These last three and a half years have clone me untold good; given mc quite a different grasp of art, something I would not have achieved if I’d stayed in Adelaide. I hardly think I’ll be very satisfied to work in Adelaide now after having been to Europe, and especially Italy—the paradise of the artist.”[1]

© Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2008
Andrews, Hans Heysen, exhibition book, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2008, p 40

[1] ‘Hans Heysen’s great art exhibition at the Grosvenor, notable pictures’, Daily Guardian (Sydney), 14 June 1928, p 12, col f